Let Me Suffer Alone
by Hippopoto
Summary: A depressed 16 year old girl struggles to stay alive as she faces her inner demons, and almost loses the battle. But one day her life changes when she meets four interesting creatures, who try to convince her that life is worth living. **Contains blood, suicide, self harm, etc. Could be triggering, so please. Rated T for language, stuff like that.** First Story! ** 2k3verse.
1. Chapter 1

**HI. So I've just started out, if you haven't noticed. Anyways, I would really appreciate reviews, good or bad, i just need some help with what I could make better about this story ^.^ Written in the 2k3 verse of TMNT! **

**Thank you, and please enjoy 3**

I was alone.

To be completely honest, I wasn't technically alone. I live in a townhouse with my three other family members, and by society's definition, I lived a very good life up until recently.

My mother and father worked at this secret organization, which I knew nothing about. However, I'm almost certain they were enjoying their job, since they rarely appeared at the dinner table to accompany my brother and I. It was always the same excuse; "Too much work, we'll eat later. We'll be back soon." Yeah, okay mother and father.

My brother was very quiet, lazy, and spent his days locking himself in his room to play his x-box or watch Anime. He was extremely secretive. Typical, secretive, little brothers. What can you do, I guess? It's not like I could force him to talk to me or anything.

Living in a very decently sized townhouse in the middle of New York with the comfort of my Bichon Poodle named Furly and my warm comfy bed, I guess you could say that I didn't have much to complain about.

But that didn't stop the thoughts I had to face every day when I woke up, and every night in bed before I went to sleep.

I felt... so alone.

I'm not completely sure as to what triggered this... depression. Of course, I didn't wake up one morning and think "Today, I'm going to kill myself!" Yeah, no. It doesn't work like that. Over the past few years, my thoughts have been slowly becoming worse with each passing day. My thoughts slowly becoming what I believe are to be true. Do you know what I mean? You can think whatever you want, it's your free will so you are free to do so. However, the things that you think aren't necessarily true, unless you convince yourself that they are.

I've somehow convinced myself that my existence is worthless and pathetic, and that I don't deserve to live on this planet. It just gets worse, every freakin' day.

Pathetic, isn't it? I can't BELIEVE I allowed myself to become like this. If I had more self-control of my thoughts and just... I don't know, realized what was happening a bit earlier, I wouldn't have had to come to make decisions like this.

A few hours ago, I decided I had enough of myself. I needed to leave; to get some fresh air. I peeked out my bedroom door, and realized that my brother was still locked in his room. I could hear the roar of his huge speakers blasting through his closed-door. Not surprising at all, and I'm almost certain he's going to increase his hearing damage.

I stared down at the self-inflicted wounds covering my forearms. It was quite the sight; each night they got worse. Deeper, bloodier cuts were covering my arms. I ran over to the washroom to clean them up and cover them up with bandages. I always wore long-sleeved shirts to cover the wounds; they always made me feel more secure. Actually, I could probably even walk around wearing just a short-sleeved shirt and shorts since my parents are practically never home to notice them now. I remember when they actually stayed home for about 12 hours a day, they actually made eye contact with us and tried to bond with my brother and I for the sake of keeping our family together; but one day they brought home a friend. A tiny friend, to be exact. He was such an adorable little puppy, and my brother somehow came up with the name Furly. Not sure how or why, but I nodded in agreement when I saw how the little guy reacted when we called his name. He would sit there and wave his tail around at a fascinatingly quick speed. His little tongue hung out of his mouth as his eyes stared up with such excitement.

Sure, this memory seems to be totally sappy and such, but really, I recall it as more of a poignant and dejecting memory. The one most critical thing that comes to mind when I recall this memory is that, after they brought the little guy home, they started to stay at work a lot longer. It was as if he were a good-by present to us. It just never made sense. They never made time for me and my brother anymore, and sometimes they came home beaten down and exhausted, yet they would leave to go to work if they were called back again anyways.

After re-bandaging my old wounds and covering up the fresh ones, I quickly made my way over to my bedroom. I walked over to my closet which was to the left of my door, and I whipped out a two of my comfy-est and warmest sweaters, both the color teal. After throwing them on and combing down my long dark brown hair which reached my belly button, I threw on some leggings, grabbed my keys, phone, and wallet, and made my way down the stairs after closing my bedroom door.

I walked into the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, and my parent's study, somewhat hoping I could announce out loud that I was going out for a walk at 10 pm in the middle of New York city. Almost hoping that someone would lecture me "No! You're not allowed, you're only a 16 year old girl. It's not safe." I knew that it just wouldn't be the case. I DID take self-defense classes a few years back and practiced them from time to time, but I'm pretty sure my moves are a bit rusty by now.

I took a quick peek into my parent's study, and noticed Furly curled up against a heater, trying to warm himself up. I wasn't surprised, considering it's literally the middle of December and it's just... freezing. I whispered a small "Furly, I'm leaving." And turned my back on him, making my way towards my front door. I wasn't really sure if what I said had a different meaning behind it, but I decided that later I would see.

Locking my front door behind me, I jogged down the steps of my home and took a right, walking down the street. I pulled up the hoods of my sweaters, and I took a quick glance at my phone to see if I had gotten any texts. Fat chance though, since my so called "Friends" rarely ever hit me up anymore.

I let out a sigh and put my phone into my pocket, along with both my hands to keep them warm. Up ahead, I noticed the gas station at the corner, so I decided to drop by to grab a chocolate bar or something. I walked at a neutral pace; not too slow so that some random guy would be able to notice me and grab me easier, but not too fast to make it look like I was expecting him to. I breathed out slowly and noticed the little cloud of breath floating away from my lips. It was a cold night. Finally, I reached the corner station; but before I was about to enter, I noticed a few big guys with weird dragon tattoos. Why did they all have dragon tattoos? I didn't really know, but I could see that this was going to be rough.

Each of the gangsters had a knife in their hand, and one of them was pointing it directly at the cashier. The poor cashier, he looked completely terrified. I watched carefully as the cashier reached into the cash register, throwing the bills and coins of whatever was inside, into a bag. I took cover behind the trash bin beside the entrance, and awaited their arrival as the cashier finished emptying the register. All I heard afterwards was a punching sound, possibly towards the stomach or upper torso area, and the sound of a body hiding the floor. I tried to glance over the counter, but from the angle I was at, it just wasn't possible. I suppose I should have run at that moment, or called the police using my phone. But I was in the heat of the moment, and just watching those tall gangster idiots threatening that old man irritated me to bits.

After what felt like hours, I finally heard the ring of the door opening. This was my chance. I jumped out, and the 4 big guys looked down in surprise. Stupid me though, because as soon as I jumped out, I realized I had no weapon to cling on to or hit them with. It was then that I realized that I would have to rely on my rusty self-defense skills; if you could still call them "skills".

They all chuckled at my appearance. A little 16-year-old girl, barely past the 5'4 height mark and ranging at around 110 pounds; I didn't look like much of a fight.

"It's alright guys, I can handle this little shit. Just take the money and go, just in case she called for the police or somethin'," one of them smirked in his' buddies' direction. He turned back to me, approaching me with a slight smile. "Little girl, you saw somethin' you shouldn't have seen. Time for you to be taught a lesson."

His buddies shrugged and walked off in the opposite direction, beaming with happiness as they boasted about the amount of money they stole that very same day. My face grew into disgust as I listened, but my attention soon turned back towards the huge man in front of me.

Thankfully, he wasn't too tall, probably around 5'9 or 5'10, but he was still huge. His dragon tattoo ran down his left arm, and he wore these huge baggy pants and a dirty "wife beater" as they call it. I wondered for a moment about why he wasn't freezing in this weather, but that was literally the last of my worries. I put myself into a strong and stable stance, letting him get just a bit closer. I saw his arm rising up to hit me, and that's when I lost myself in the heat of the moment _again._

I felt myself twist my hip forward, as the root of the power for my attack, and my arm shoot out in front of me with my palm aimed at his face. It caught him completely by surprise, and I smacked him straight on in the mouth and nose. It looked like it hurt, since he stumbled backwards holding his nose. I swear, I heard him growl at me. I quickly jumped forward grabbing the sides of his arms, and kneed him a few times right in his... special area. He yelled, and clutched that area with all his might, while falling forward and hitting the ground. His nose was bleeding, and his legs and hands were crushed together, as if trying to ease the pain. I saw his buddies running back towards me, this time with their weapons.

"Fuck! Get her!" the guy on the ground screamed. I stifled out a chuckle. He looked so weak; so vulnerable to any attack I could send to him next. I didn't have time for that, however, since his little buddies had brought some back up. Really? Do they really need back up against a little girl like me? This was just my lucky day. My forearms were burning like hell, since the pressure from my strike had caused a lot of strain on my arms; and now blood was visibly seeping through my sweater. _No! _I had thought to myself. _Not my favourite sweaters! Ah shit, now I'm going to have to wash them as soon as I get home._

I have to admit, I was a pretty fast runner, considering I had been on the school track team for the past 3 years but that was besides the point.

I ran and ran, not in the direction of my home, but down a dark alley in the opposite direction from my home. I could hear their angry rough voices growing quieter behind me. I didn't want them putting my little brother in danger, and I didn't want them knowing where the direction of my home was, in case they came back for revenge. I passed huge amounts of garbage and the stench of it filled my nose, I almost gagged. Unfortunately, while I ran down the alley, I hit a dead-end. I could have sworn that this alley lead to the other neighborhood, but I must have gone down the wrong one.

_Shit. Think. Think._ I thought to myself in such haste. I looked around, noticing the fire escape ladder. I also considered the shadows of the weird gangster people approaching, so I tried to reach the ladder on the first jump.

I climbed up on top of a dumpster, and got myself prepared for the jump I was going to make. I swung my arms back and forth while crouching, trying to somehow help myself for when I jumped, but my palms were sweating like crazy. At least, I think it was sweat. I pushed these thoughts to the back of my head. I just needed to get away from those big fellows. It was at that moment that I had wished I had called the police right away when I saw the theft happening. Once again, another stupid act by yours truly.

Finally, I flung myself off of the dumpster squeezing my eyes shut and reaching my arms forward, almost expecting to hit the ground hard and split open my head; but I felt my hands gripping a rusty metal bar. I looked up and noticed my hands were grabbing the ladder. I pulled myself up, ignoring the burning coming from my arms, and ran up the fire escape stairs. I tried to do it as quickly and as silently as possible, so that the gangsters wouldn't see where I had gone.

From up above, I noticed them drawing nearer, so I forced myself into the shadows, where they couldn't see me. I looked down from where I was, hoping that I was out of their sight. When I saw they reached the end of the alley, I noticed the biggest guy, possibly the leader, shout out in rage. I could hear his voice echo in the alley. "WE FUCKING LOST HER! A LITTLE GIRL. AND SHE KNOWS WHAT YOU GUYS DID! YOU STUPID IDIOTS. AND YOU. YOU LET A SMALL GIRL LIKE HER BEAT YOU UP? FUCK. FIND HER, AND WHEN YOU DO, BRING HER TO ME. SHE COULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN FAR. YOU GOT THAT?" That was the last thing I heard him say before the shuffle of their feet and the big guy's voice grew quieter and drifted away from my direction.

_Great. Just great. I'm wanted by a gang of huge scary men with weird tattoos and who don't feel cold in the winter. I can't go home because of these men, since they'll be searching for me for a while. My arms are burning and bleeding, and my hair is a huge mess._

I continued to climb up the stairwell of the fire escape feeling irritated, and pulled myself up onto the roof of the building. It wasn't a very tall building, but it was still tall enough for me to die if I fell, or jumped, off of it. I sighed, and put my arms back into my sweater pockets. I walked over to the other side of the building, and leaned my back against the ledge of one of the walls. I pulled out my phone, and looked through my contacts. _Should I call Stella? No, she's probably too busy with her new boyfriend. Maybe Aria or Jacky? No. I can't, they'll just think I'm annoying again. Maybe I should call Marina? No, she's out of the country, stupid. UGH. _I shut off the screen of my phone putting it down beside me and pulled my legs in towards my chest, hugging them closer. I rested my chin on my knees, and then adjusted the uncomfortable position by resting my forehead on my knees. I sat there in silence for a few minutes, just thinking.

I shot my head up, and grabbed my phone again. I looked through that contacts and came across the contacts Mother and Father. _I need to call them. If I do, they'll at least be worried about THIS._ I dialed up mom's phone number. I listened to each ring. Fourth. Fifth. I listened on, until finally I heard the sound of her voice.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded serious, and very irritated.

"Mom! It's me. I-" My voice was shaking, but I tried my best not to stutter.

"I'm busy with work. This better be important," she said sternly. I could hear voices in the background, probably just her co-workers talking.

I was relieved that she said that, because this was VERY important. "Well, you see, I went on a walk and I saw these huge men at the corner gas station. So, naturally, I wanted to see what they were up to. I saw them take money from the cashier and they knocked him out after taking all the money, and they came out and-" I was cut off.

"Sorry darling I really need to go, I'm very, very busy. As you should know," she snapped suddenly. It was as if she wasn't listening to what I said at ALL.

"Mom! Are you even listening to me? I was-,"

"I said, NOT NOW!" she hung up.

I listened to the tone coming from my phone. Tears welled up in my eyes. Not even my MOM was listening to me?! I felt the warm tears dripping down my face. _I'll try calling dad, then._

I dialed his number, hearing his voice after the sixth ring.

"Hello?" His voice sounded so different, so monotone. It was as if I hadn't heard him speak in months. That was when I realized that it was probably true. He had barely spoken 5 words to me and my brother in the past few months.

"Dad!" I yelled in desperation.

"What's wrong?" His voice was still monotone. Why didn't he sound concerned?! I couldn't believe this. I almost missed his completely embarrassing nicknames he gave me a few years back, like his "Widdle darling bear" or his "Pumpkin" or his "sweet little daughter".

"Dad, I went for a walk. These gangster guys- they... attacked me. They're going to kill me. They're after me, I'm so... s-scared. Please... save m-me." I was sobbing now, which I thought was pretty embarrassing considering I never cry in front of my parents, but this time was an exception because it was over the phone. I couldn't hold my composure any longer.

His silence made it even more unbearable. It had probably been a good few minutes before I spoke up again.

"Dad?"

"...I can't, I'm busy with work."

My eyes grew wide. I could feel my heart stop for a second. I couldn't believe what I had just heard.

"You're... what?"

"Call the police. They will help you." He hung up.

I listened to the tone, but even after I heard it, I kept my phone attached to my ear. After a few minutes, I threw my phone in the opposite direction, letting it smash the screen into pieces. I saw as the battery flew out of the back. I couldn't call the police now, not that I wanted to anymore. I let out a groan of frustration as my eyes grew cloudy. I pulled my legs into a tighter hug, as I crushed my face into my knees, allowing my tears to soak my leggings. My body was beginning to grow numb from the cold of the night. I allowed myself to drown in my thoughts.

_My parents don't care about me. They never did. Never have, never will. I'm just a nuisance. A thorn in their side. I can't be here... I can't._

These sort of thoughts rushed into my mind for the next thirty minutes. I cried to myself, as I held myself quietly. I looked up slowly, my eyes half open. _I needed to get out of here. I need to get out of this world._

I pulled myself up slowly, and turned towards the edge of the building. I swayed a bit, exhausted from the events that had occurred earlier that night. I pulled myself onto the ledge, and looked down towards the ground. It didn't seem far down enough, but hopefully it would do the trick in killing me.

I stood there staring, debating whether or not to jump. My mind was full of questions, full of "what if's" and "Just do it". I rubbed my eyes with my sleeves, and I noticed the blood still staining my sweater, as the surface area of the blood had grown almost covering my entire sleeve.

I took another glance at the ground. _It's now or never_. I thought to myself helplessly. _Goodbye, family. I'm sorry Furly, and little bro. I'm sorry._

I was about to jump off when I heard a voice.

"Are ya really goin' ta jump, miss?" the low Brooklyn accent sounded.

"Yes," I said quickly so I wouldn't reconsider my actions.

"Why? Yuh' have so much ta live for. Talk to me about it, will ya'?" I could hear his voice getting closer behind me. I stayed quiet, trying to ignore him so I could just jump already. He spoke up again, "Turn around. I jus' wanna talk to ya, if you'll let me?" He was really close now. His voice sounded so... manly, yet so... desperate. This guy was actually desperate to stop me from jumping.

"I...I'm sorry." I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes again. I leaned forward and allowed my body to follow the laws of gravity. This was it, I was going to die.

**So! What did you all think? pleaaase reviews! And if I should continue on? ): The turtles will show up more later on, don't worry haaaaaaaaa.**


	2. Chapter 2

****Disclaimer: I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (if only... lol) only the story line is mine. And the other characters and blah yeah.** Um, enjoy, i guess? **

Chapter 2:

You know that feeling of thrill you get inside of you when you're falling down quickly, like on a ride at an amusement park? That was what I was feeling like at that moment; only without the amusement, the park, the ride, and the thrill. I jumped off the building on my own accord, and for a split moment I'm pretty sure I regretted it.

I could feel myself falling, but it was almost as if everything was moving in slow motion. It was weird, because I just wanted everything to end already. Unfortunately that clearly wasn't going to happen; because at that same instant, I felt an arm wrap around my waist. We jerked to a stop in the air, and swung towards the wall of the building. I glanced up and noticed the rope that was stopping us from falling together. I looked back down to see how far I was from my destination. Barely even half way there. I wanted to let out a groan of irritation, but relief washed through me instead. I could feel the body pulling us together up onto the roof. I heard him cussing under his breath from time-to-time, and I couldn't tell if they were directed towards me or the situation I had brought him into. When we finally reached the top, my arms and legs refused to respond to my commands, and I quickly fell to the ground as soon as the figure let me down. I felt so stupid and hopeless, like a rag doll.

The figure noticed my sudden lack of energy, so he helped me back up into a sitting position, and leaned me against one of the half-walls on top of the building. At this moment, I couldn't help but worry about those despicable men I had met earlier. _What if they're still out there, looking for me? What if they don't give up? What if they somehow find out where I live and get to my brother?! _I could feel my anxiety level rising up as I stared at the ground, almost forgetting that the one that saved me was still present. The moon moved out from behind the clouds and my savior's shadow was cast beside my frail body. I stared at it from the corner of my eye, and noticed his figure was... odd. I looked up at him, finally being able to move my body about and slowly gaped at the sight.

His skin color was... peculiar. The lighting outside was terrible, but I still got a good look at him. He had three fingers on each hand, and his arms were quite muscular. His legs were muscular as well, and I noticed he had two toes on each foot. Heck, his whole body was muscular! He wore some protection gear around his elbows and knees, and he had a belt wrapped around his mid section. I saw two weapons sticking out from his belt which, if I remember correctly from my self-defense classes, were SAIS. There was a red mask wrapped around his eyes, and the end of his mask flew around freely with the breeze. I also noticed a shell on his back. I continued to stare at him as he wound up the rope he had used to climb up earlier and shove it into his... shell? It took me a minute to realize that this guy... my SAVIOUR... was a turtle.

He's... a... giant turtle.

I gawked at him, my eyes growing wider. I lifted my right arm to rub my eyes, and looked back at him again. Nope, he was still a turtle. A huge, muscular turtle just saved my life. What the-?

The turtle noticed me staring at him, and he rolled his eyes. I could see he was becoming irritated with my reaction. He shifted a little, almost in discomfort, and he finally crossed his arms; waiting for me to do – or say – something.

"Alrigh'," he whispered as he glared at me, "Hurry up an' scream, tell me ta fuck off, ta leave ya' alone. Call me a freak too, if ya will. I can tell where this is goin'."

I raised my eyebrow, staring at him, "Why?"

I could tell he was surprised, because right after I asked, he unfolded his arms and took a step closer to me. "Ya' don't think I'm weird lookin' or anythin'? That I'm scary?"

I scanned his body again, trying to register his appearance into my brain. The more I stared at him, the more comfortable I grew with his form.

"Well, yeah, I think you're really freaky looking and stuff." Bad choice of words, but I continued on, "But why would I tell you fuck off? You saved my life, and even tried to stop me from killing myself. How can I just call you a freak?"

"Well, ya see... there're some people who do that kinda stuff when they see what I look like. They don' even try ta get to know who I am first, they jus' scream an' run. It pisses me off," this red masked turtle was now sitting beside me on my right, leaning on the same half wall that I was leaning on. His left leg stretched out in front of him while he rested his right arm on his right leg. He wasn't facing my direction, but it didn't need to be. Having him in my presence made me feel a lot better already. With this turtle, I felt a huge sense of security. It was probably because he saved me. "I save 'em, an' what do I get? A _thank you_? No. They run away screamin'. Whuteva'. I'm used ta it now."

"Wow, I'm sorry to hear that," I whispered sympathetically. I truly felt bad for him. He seemed like a great fellow, yet people just treated him like dirt. I stared back down at my arms, noticing the blood stains that were mixed in with the teal color of my sweater. _Welp, these are definitely not coming out._ I closed my eyes and thought about this day's events. I guess it was pretty weird that I wasn't giving off much of a reaction to his looks. I mean, it's not every day you meet a gigantic turtle. Still, it didn't seem like he was looking for trouble. I let these thoughts dissolve.

Suddenly, I remembered what he had done for me just 5 minutes ago. It would have been rude not to say anything; I mean, he was my saviour, wasn't he?

"By the way... thanks for saving me earlier." I whispered almost silently. I took a deep breath, trying not to let my voice break down in front of him. Now THAT would have been embarrassing. So, I tried again. "I was just feeling really... suicidal. I don't know what I was thinking. Thank you."

It was weird for me to say the word "Suicidal" out loud, because not only have I been depressed for the past few years, but I've never breathed a word of it to anyone. I kept it to myself for so long, and I was hoping to keep it that way, up until recently.

"Don' mention it. As long as yer okay, I guess." An awkward silence followed.

I was beginning to feel cold. Earlier, I had forgotten about the cold when I was about to jump off, but now I was completely aware of how cold it was. For a minute I wondered why he wasn't trying to talk to me about my suicide attempt, but I didn't want to spark up our first conversation like that. Also, I wasn't sure I wanted to talk about it either. Suddenly, I turned my head slightly towards this turtle, trying to make our current situation less... awkward.

"So..." I started off coolly, "Do you... have a name?"

"... The name's Raphael. Call me Raph, though. Only my sensei calls me by my full name, and sometime's my brotha's too."

I turned my head to face him completely this time, surprised at what I just heard. "You have a sensei and brothers?" This information surprised me. _He has a sensei... so he's a... Japanese turtle with a Brooklyn accent? _I furrowed my eyebrows as I pursed my lips together, forming a line. It was all just getting way too confusing.

He chuckled. "Yeah. It's a long story... ya' wouldn't find it interestin' anyway. It's gettin' pretty cold. I should-uh. _We_ should get home." It almost sounded like an excuse to just get away from me.

I felt a sort of loneliness stinging me. _Yup, I'm going to be alone... again. I'm sure he has better things to do. No one wants to hang out with someone like me. Heck, not even my own parents want to anymore. _I accidentally let out a long sigh. I turned my head in the other direction, hoping I hadn't made it too obvious.

He spoke again. "Where do ya' live? I could take ya home. Your family is probably worried about you or somethin'." I could feel him getting up beside me. Was he really that eager to leave?

I hugged my legs closer before replying. "Um. Down the street from the closest gas station. I just... don't think it's safe for me to go home right now, though. And I HIGHLY doubt they're worried about me, so don't be concerned about that."

"Wha'? Why?" if he had eyebrows, I'm pretty sure one of them would be raised at this moment. He sounded curious – almost concerned. He bent over slightly, trying to get a good look at my face.

That's when a sudden pain shot through my head. I looked up, trying to somehow make sense of things, but my head started to spin. _Not now. Not now._ I thought frantically, trying not to make anything worse for the poor turtle guy. I mean, he had already saved my life once. I didn't need him coming to my rescue again.

I pulled myself up, using the wall for support. I straightened my back and stumbled slowly over to where my phone was located. After picking up whatever was left of it, I put it in my pocket and looked over at Raph. He had his arms crossed again and he was watching me carefully, as if making sure I didn't try to jump off again. It's not like I really wanted to right now anyway. I didn't mind the idea of accidentally falling off, though.

I was feeling extremely light-headed, and soon enough my head was pounding. I needed Advil or something. Tylenol. Pain killers. ANYTHING. My head was just exploding with pain; it was beginning to feel unbearable. I finally spoke up.

"Well, thanks for the help Raph, but I think I can take over from here," I mumbled out loud enough for him to hear from his distance. I made my way over to the fire escape that I had climbed up, not worrying about the dangers that could be awaiting me down there.

"Hey, wait. I'm not lettin' you outta my sight just yet." He started to walk towards me slowly. I think he was going to grab me, but I didn't want to bother him anymore. "Hey – stop. Don't take another step. I wanna ask y-"

"No, it's okay." I would have said more to reassure him that I wasn't going to attempt to jump off again, but I couldn't find the strength to keep speaking. The aching in my head was just getting worse. I guess I'd just have to try and get home on my own; I didn't want him wasting more time on me.

"Wait just a _damn_ minute," he growled. "Don't ya' dare move." I stopped suddenly. He seemed so serene when we were talking a minute ago. It took me by surprise._ Maybe he's refusing to let me go because of other reasons, and not because he's concerned about my safety? Maybe he doesn't want to let me go because he's an evil mutant that actually wants to eat my brains?_ My thoughts were ridiculous, and at this point I was probably going insane. I set them aside, and turned myself back into the situation I was in.

I tried to turn around and face him, I really did. He was approaching me, and I could feel him probably only a foot away. If it weren't for my stupid headache, I would have been able to face him and convince him to just let me go. But instead, I felt myself falling to the ground. I heard little echo's of "Hey, hey! Shi - " and a pair of hands grabbing me before everything went black.

*****By the way, are these chapters too long? Because I can shorten them up. I just tend to write down a lot when I'm feeling depressed. I usually only write when I'm feeling really down, so... yeah. Let me know if this is too much. Thanks *****

**ALSO! : I also have chapter 3 done, I just don't know if I should post it. I have no idea if I like the idea of where this story is going, but that's what I love about writing. ANYTHING can happen. :D AND sorry for any tiny tiny tiny TINYY mistakes, I had an exam and I had no time to check this over, and I have another exam tomorrow. I just thought I might as well post this ;~; But yeah... lulz. hope this chapter was ok ;_;**


	3. Chapter 3

_*****YAYY I'm done all my exams! Ugh, it has been a very stressful few days but here I am again, writing fanfics! hahahahaaa. I was kind of reluctant on posting this chapter though. I dunno, I could have done so much better on it. But I'm already caught up on the 5th chapter and i'm waaay too lazy to change this one up(I actually tried to change it...), so i'll just make up for this chapter by making the other ones super good. Okay! :D ******  
_

_It was cold. I couldn't remember how I had gotten myself into this mess, but I knew that I was going to get myself out. I was in a hallway of a hotel. _

_**CRACK.**_

_I turned around, trying to discover what the source of the noise was. At the very end of the hallway, I saw one of the light bulbs had broken. I squinted my eyes, trying to get a better look, but suddenly I heard another CRACK. I saw that the light bulb in front of it had popped as well, and the end of the hallway was suddenly getting very dark. The light bulbs broke, one by one, and the darkness grew thicker as it headed into my direction._

_I turned away, running in the opposite direction, hoping the darkness wouldn't catch up to me in time. The light bulbs broke at a faster pace, and I ran at a tiring speed, trying not to get swallowed up by the darkness. I ran and ran down the hallway, finally reaching the end. The only thing standing between me and freedom was a door. It had the number 265 on it. I yanked the door open, hoping to find something better than the darkness, but what I saw only shocked me._

_It was a fairly kind memory- a memory I had thought I had forgotten. I saw as my brother and I ran around the yard playing with our action figures, and my parents were casually barbecuing some steaks. They smiled as they stared at us playing. Nostalgia hit me hard, and I stared at the memory wanting to enter it. As soon as I took a step towards it, I felt myself being pulled away from it. The darkness had gotten me._

I woke up with a gasp and my eyes shot open. I was breathing hard. _Thank god it was just a nightmare, _I thought to myself. _Just a terrible, terrible nigh-_

My face felt wet, as if I was crying or sweating. I moved my right hand to my face, lightly touching my right cheek with my fingers. _Okay. My cheeks are wet so I was probably crying._ I sighed. The nightmare was bad. Just terrible. But what the hell did it all _mean_?

The dirt on my sweater caught my eye, and I immediately brought it closer to my eyes. It was really dirty. _Wait a second... This isn't dirt._ I pulled up my sleeves and saw bloody bandages covering my forearm. _It`s... blood._ I quickly glanced over at my other arm, noticing the same stain covering the sleeve.

The memories of what had happened slowly started flowing back to me, and they made me feel quite unpleasant. I looked at the mattress I was sleeping on, and realized it was actually an unfamiliar couch. I slowly looked up; my heart beginning to pound in my chest. I wasn't home... but I wasn't on the roof either. Thankfully, it wasn't too cold anymore.

It was dark everywhere. I couldn`t quite understand why I was here, and how I got here. I felt like I was in another terrible nightmare... all alone.

Suddenly, I felt someone – or something – moving somewhere in the darkness. My heart stopped. _If they're going to kill me, they might as well just do it already!_ I hated the suspense. I especially hated it in movies, too. Why doesn't the bad guy in the movie just come out and kill them already? Why go through the trouble of making them wait? God, I just hated suspenseful movies, and especially horror movies. I suddenly heard something _meow _in the distance. I shook my head. I was probably just delusional.

I stood up from the couch, hearing it creak under me. A sudden pain shot through my head, and it seemed all too familiar. I fell back into the couch, holding my head with both my arms. I groaned quietly. "I could really use some Advil right about now." That's when I heard voices approaching.

I panicked, knowing that these were probably my kidnappers, so slid back down into a comfortable position on the couch and closed my eyes. I tried my best to make my face look relaxed, but it was hard to when I could practically feel my whole body shaking. It took all my will power to stop any movement from my body. I breathed slowly, making it appear as if I were in a deep slumber.

The voices finally entered the room.

"Raph... I told you not to leave her alone on the couch. Is she hurt? What if she's woken up? And you brought her here because..." Another guy. That name sounded really familiar too...

" 'cause," a familiar voice spoke, "she passed out. What was I s'pposed to do? Leave her there on the roof? It was freezin' outside! And get this; she didn't even freak out when she saw what I looked like. She didn't scream or nothin'."

"That's..." the voice paused, "good, I guess?"

They were closer to me now. I could feel them at the end of the couch, staring at me.

"How long has she been out?"

"Well. It took me 'bout... dunno, a minute of hesitation before decidin' to bring 'er here, then 30 minutes ta get here? Then a few minutes of ya freakin' out at me. So... I'd say she's probably been out for roughly 40 minutes now."

There was a sigh, "Okay, well I guess we'll have to wait until Don is finished with his experiment to check up on her. Which will be soon. You chose one hell of a time to bring her home. When Master Splinter gets back from his trip, he's going to be pretty... surprised to see what you brought home." There was a pause. "Have you checked her for wounds?"

"No, I was 'bout to after I put her on the couch then ya came in and started freakin' out at me."

Another sigh came from the unfamiliar voice. "Just check her now, and be careful not to wake her."

"Whuteva', fearless."

Finally, I remembered where the name and voice came from. It was from the roof of the building, when I was going to jump off and he tried to stop me. I felt relief wash through my body, and I felt a little more comfortable knowing that it was Raph that had taken me, and not those gangsters I had a very bad encounter with.

I slowly opened my eyes, making it appear as if I had just woken up. I hadn't realized they turned on the lights, because as soon as my eyes opened everything was just... bright. It blinded me for a second.

My eyes eventually adjusted, and I saw a giant green turtle beside me, wearing a red bandana around his eyes. I stared at him, waiting for him to notice that I had awoken, but he was too focused on searching for injuries.

"Um... Hi," I squeaked out. His eyes moved towards my face.

"Oh uh... hey," he said awkwardly. He turned to face another direction. "LEO! SHE'S AWAKE."

I hadn't even realized his companion left the room. His sudden shout was ringing in my ears, and made me feel light headed. I started to get up, but he quickly grabbed my shoulders and pushed them back down on the couch. "No. Don't move. And you better listen to me this time." He looked down at me, giving me this look that made me give in and lay back down. "LEO HURRY UP 'ND GET YER ASS OVER HERE."

"What? What?" Another turtle entered the room, but he was wearing a blue mask and was a different shade of green. He was holding a tea kettle and a few cups. He walked over, putting down what he was holding onto the coffee table located in front of the couch I was on.

"Took ya' long enough. I told ya she woke up."

"Sorry, I was making tea for when..." he stared mostly at me, rather than Raph.

"Whateva'." Another sigh from the one with the blue bandana.

The blue masked turtle looked at me and gave me a small smile. I stared at him. Not wanting to make the situation awkward, I smiled back. He finally spoke up.

"Hello, I'm Leonardo. And this is-"

"She knows that already." Raph rolled his eyes, and stared at the one named Leonardo. They glared at each other for a moment.

"Hello Leonardo," I nodded as a greeting, and my eyes shifted quickly between the two turtles, trying to figure out distinct differences between them. Raph was a little bigger than Leonardo, but not by much. I noticed now that they both carried different weapons; Raph had the sais and Leonardo had katanas. From what Raph had told me earlier, I assumed that Leonardo was one of the brother's he spoke about.

"What's your name?" the blue masked turtle asked me softly. Raph looked up at me, wanting to know my name as well.

"I'm Leanne," I answered, forcing a smile onto my face.

"Leanne... that's a nice name," Leonardo smiled in approval.

"So um... Raph. Is Leonardo –"

"It's okay to just call me Leo, Leanne."

"Oh, okay. So, are you two... brothers?" I asked.

Raph looked over at Leo, and quickly looked back at me. "Yeah."

I looked around the room we were in; it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. There was a huge Television in front of me, combined with other tiny televisions surrounding it, empty pizza boxes at every corner, and the ceiling was just... so high.

"And you guys... live here?"

It wasn't really your typical townhouse in New York. It was nothing like my cozy warm house. If not, it was probably the complete opposite. There weren't... many, wall decorations besides this one wooden square hanging beside the Television that had the words "Sewer Sweet Sewer" carved in. The walls were all covered with grey stone, and I assumed the ground was just as the same. I looked behind the couch, and noticed that the place extended further on. I decided to investigate this place later; if I would be allowed to.

"So... _Leanne,_" Raph finally said, trying not to sound too harsh. "Will ya... tell us what happened? Why it's not safe to go home? And... the other thing?"

Leo looked confused. "What _other_ thing?"

"Okay, I'll explain..." I said quietly.

So I did.

I told them everything that happened; from when I left the house, how fast I walked, how the big guy's looked, how I didn't call the police... I tried to make it as detailed as possible. I changed the ending up a little though, not wanting to draw too much attention to myself. I wanted the poor cashier at the corner station to be given his money back, and for those thieves to be brought to justice.

"And so, after I got onto the roof, I uh... dropped my phone." I took it out of my pocket, displaying the little pieces of it that was left along with the battery. Leo took it with his hand and placed it on the coffee table, reassuring that their other brother – Don, was it? – would be able to fix it up. "And... I fell... off the roof and Raph saved me." I said the last sentence too quickly.

"Liar," Raph whispered, glaring at me. I returned the glare.

Leo looked at him, then to me, then back to him. "Okay... well. These guys sound a lot like Purple Dragons."

"Purple Dragons?" I thought about the name for a second, realizing they were a pretty big street gang in New York. "OH! No wonder their tattoo looked so... I don't know, weird. I didn't realize that it was part of their gang logo, or whatever."

"Ain't it obvious? They're called the purple dragons and they had DRAGON tattoos? ...And don't change tha subject." Raph said through his teeth. "Tell Leo the truth 'bout what happened!"

"That _is_ the truth," I countered back. My eyes stared directly into his; pleading for him to go along with what I was saying. He didn't go with it.

"_You_ tried to jump off the building. I _tried_ to stop you before you did, but you just said 'I'm sorry' and ya just JUMPED!" Raph was yelling, but he wasn't mad at me. He sounded more... sad, I guess.

I stared at him, too nervous to look at Leo. Raph was standing now, staring down at me, while Leo was still crouched to my side, his eyes on me.

"What... what's that on your sleeves?" Leo asked quietly, gently touching my right arm.

I pulled my arm back, trying to hide the stains. "Oh, what? These stains? Oh I just... I just fell earlier. It's just – "

It was too late. Leo had already grabbed my right arm and pulled up my sleeve. I cringed at the sudden contact with my wound, but I said nothing. I stared at my wound like it was nothing. I glanced up at Raph, who gaped at the sight of my arm. My focus switched back to Leo's expression. He was quiet. Surprised, even. His eyes were wide.

"Thos... that wasn't... dirt? Mud? It wasn't mud?" Raph crouched beside me in disbelief. He grabbed my left arm, doing the same action that Leo did, and I heard Leo gasp beside him. This only confirmed Raph's story about me jumping off the roof of the building. "...I'm so fuckin' stupid."

I bit my lip. I really wanted to grab my arm back and say that I just fell or that my friend's cat scratched me, but I knew it was too late. It was too obvious that they were self inflicted wounds. The lines across were too... perfect. Too deep. I tried to say something that would ease the situation.

"Don't... Don't worry about it. It doesn't hurt or anything. I just... it's not like I..." I didn't know what to say. There was nothing _to _say. Of all the emotions I could be feeling right now... I felt... _embarrassed_.

I yanked both my arms away, pulling both my sleeves down at the same time.

They were at a loss for words; and I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. I haven't been around them long enough to know what they were like. I just... didn't know what to do. They stared at each other, then back to me, then to my arms, then continued on thinking.

"Hey guys! I'm done, sorry I took so long. So, who am I checking over?" a turtle with a purple mask suddenly appeared behind the couch he had a bo-staff attached to his shell. He was also a different shade of green. Weird.

He looked down at me, giving me a warm smile. "Hi, I'm Donatello. Call me Don for short." He gave me a tiny wink. I smirked, but I was still feeling awkward.

"I'm Leanne."

He nodded at me... such a friendly turtle guy. He looked at his two other brothers that were crouching down beside me. "Guys? What's wrong?" he asked, looking slightly concerned.

"Don," Leo finally spoke up, "Her arms are really hurt. Can you help her?"

Don looked at me, then back at Leo. "Uh, well how hurt is she?" He gently grabbed my left arm, but I immediately pulled it back. He gave me a strange look.

"I... er... look for yourself. I'm not exactly... sure how to... deal with this sort of thing. I've never..." Leo trailed off.

"Okay. Let's bring her to my lab, and I'll take a look," Don ordered calmly. The purple one wasn't smiling anymore. Maybe Leo's reaction to this situation had caused him to feel some sort of... discomfort? Maybe this wasn't Leo's usual way of reacting to situations? But what I did wasn't even bad, and it didn't involve them in any way. Why were they acting so surprised by it? They barely knew who I was.

I immediately felt someone lifting me in a bridal hold. I looked up to see it was Raph, his green eyes were soft but he wasn't looking at me. He was carrying me to Donatello's lab.

As soon as we entered, I noticed a nicely decorated bed – or operating table, I wasn't sure which since it was decorated for some reason – and many test tubes, bandages, and other typical things you'd find in a lab.

Raph placed me onto the table, and I sat up right away trying to hide my forearms by pushing them into my lap. My head began spinning, but I forced myself to look natural, and ignored the pain.

"Okay. Show me your arms," Don commanded.

I shook my head quickly, "I can't. I uh- they're... They're fine, really. I'm used to them. I usually let them heal over time. I know how to treat them."

Leo and Raph were both concerned for me. I could tell, since they were anxiously waiting behind the doctor of the family. Raph sat down in this big chair, leaning towards where Don and I were, while Leo paced around slowly, occasionally glancing over in our direction. They were both listening carefully to what I was saying.

Don turned around, and then looked back at me. "Will you show them to me if they leave?"

I paused for a moment. That would seem... kind of harsh to them, wouldn't it? I guess them leaving would've been better than them WATCHING me roll up my sleeves again. I didn't feel comfortable with them staring. Their reaction earlier sort of... hurt. They looked at my arms like I was some sort of... freak. I nodded, not wanting to speak.

Don whirled around in his chair. "Okay you two, off to bed. It's almost 2 am." He stood and started pushing them out of the room. I could tell they were about to protest, but I'm guessing Don gave them a glare of death that told them to 'leave now, or you will feel my wrath'. It was strange to see, since he seemed like the calm one of the three. Leo and Raph slowly made their way out of the room, looking back quickly before the door closed.

"Okay. Let's do this... show me your arms," Don repeated. I hesitated, almost regretting letting Leo and Raph leave. But it was now, or never. I rolled up my right sleeve, hoping his response wouldn't be as bad as Raph and Leo's.

******once agaainnnn... I really almost didn't post this because I wasn't sure if they were completely in character or not... but then I started working on the other chapters, and I'm hoping that the next ones will make up for some of the ooc in this chapter. I'll probably update the story again tomorrow, since chapter 4 is already done :D******


	4. Chapter 4

**ENJOOYYYY! Hehe. I'm on exam break right now, and I go back to school on the 31st... so until then, I'm going to try my best to keep writing non-stop. **

* * *

Donatello's reaction wasn't as bad as I thought it would be; it was actually much calm and controlled compared to his brothers. He took one look at my arms, and immediately began cleaning them. He lightly dabbed the blood off of my arms.

There were moments when I would jerk at the sudden shocks of pain that shot through my arms. He noticed this, and tried talking to me to calm me down.

"So, may I ask how you got these wounds?" he asked it too curiously. I'm sure he already knew; he just wanted to hear me say it myself.

"I... fell," I replied stubbornly. There was no use in lying now, I could already tell. But for some reason, I just didn't want to admit it out loud.

He immediately frowned. "Please don't try to hide it. Just tell me the truth."

I sighed, giving in to him. "Okay. So... I cut myself. Big deal. But there are many other people out there who have it just as worse as I do... I mean, what do I have to complain about? My life isn't..." my voice trailed on, and I could hear myself getting quieter. Don just sat there in silence, listening, and working on my arms.

"Okay..." He began. I waited anxiously for what he was going to say next, but he kept examining my arms. "You... lost a lot of blood. Your cuts are... really deep. I might have to stitch some of them up."

I gasped, glancing down at my cuts. "What? They... they're not that deep. I definitely didn't cut that deep." I noticed now how much deeper the cuts looked now that they were cleaned. "...Oh."

Don got up from his chair, and started searching through his cabinets. "_Oh_ is right. Those cuts are pretty deep... were you trying to kill yourself?"

"No," I replied quickly. And it was true. At the time, I wasn't actually thinking of killing myself by cutting. Cutting sort of became an addiction... something I felt like I no longer controlled.

Don sat back down in front of me on a stool. My head swayed a little as it throbbed. I looked down at Don, hoping he hadn't noticed me go weak for a moment. I tensed my muscles, eagerly hoping they would keep me from swaying again.

"How are you feeling?" He asked calmly as he opened up the kit he just grabbed.

"I feel fine," I replied almost immediately. Whenever people asked me that, it became almost natural to reply with 'I'm fine.'

He glanced up at me. "No... you're not. You're feeling light-headed, aren't you?" He placed his three-fingered hand on my forehead. "Your skin is so pale."

I shrugged, trying to act as natural as possible. "No! I'm definitely fine, don't worry about me. Just finish up stitching my arms so I can um..." I thought about it for a minute. I didn't really want to go home, but I really needed to check up on my brother. I knew I was going to miss Furly too... but my brother was more than capable of taking care of him. "So I can go home. I'd hate to over-stay my welcome here in your... uh... _lovely_ home."

While I was speaking, I didn't even realize that Don had already prepared to stitch up my wounds. I caught the sight of the needle, and shuddered. Don noticed.

"You afraid of needles?"

I nodded quickly, feeling my cheeks go slightly warm. "Yeah. Practically my entire life."

"Mmhm. You're afraid of needles, but you're not afraid to cut yourself?"

I stayed silent, but shrugged. I was hoping he'd move on from the whole "cutting yourself" thing. Talk about it some other time, or something.

He started the procedure, but we had a nice long conversation throughout it. It was relaxing, really. Not always having to talk about boyfriends or stupid friend drama... just a normal conversation between two people. Well, a girl and a turtle. Anyway, our conversation went off like this as I tried my best to ignore the pain:

"So, how old are you Leanne?"

"I'm 16."

"Do you go to school?"

"Well, yeah. I _do_ want to be educated..."

"Right. What school do you go to?"

"Uh... can I trust you enough to tell you?"

"Well. I'm patching you up, aren't I?"

"Uh huh. Okay well I go to a small high school that's pretty close to my house."

Awkward pause.

"Okay, don't give me the name then." He chuckled.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Yeah, don't worry about it."

"So, Don. You and your brothers... how old are you guys?"

"Well, since the day we were mutated, I'd say about 18 years old now."

"Whoa! You guys are so old. Okay not really, but still. You've been around for THAT long?"

"Yeah. It's a long story."

"So I've heard." I stopped, thinking of something else to ask. "So how many of you are there living down here?"

He nodded, still working on my arm. "There's me and my three other brothers. And then there's our sensei."

"Where's the fourth one? I've only seen red, blue, and purple. Where's the other color?"

"Ahh. Mikey's his name. He has the orange one."

"Nice. Orange. So where is he?"

Donatello paused. "Well, it's about 3 am now so I'm assuming he's in bed, sleeping."

"Oh... sorry."

"For what?"

"You shouldn't have to fix me up at this time. It's my fault. I'm making you fix me up when you could be sleeping. Sorry."

He grinned. "Don't worry about it. If you weren't here, I'd still be working on my other experiments and projects. Or fixing up Raphael, since he loves to go out at night and play vigilante." He rolled his eyes.

I noticed how he had suddenly called him by his full name. "Are you and your brother's close?"

He thought about it for a second. "Well, although we get on each other's nerves ALOT... we're still a team. Still a family. So I guess we are pretty close."

I smiled sadly. "That sounds nice."

"Do you have any siblings, Leanne?"

"Yeah, a younger brother. He's thirteen."

"Ohh. Mikey's the younger brother of this family, really. The three of us... well, the older ones, we all feel obligated to... protect him. Like we need to. He acts like a child too, sometimes. He super loud and sometimes annoying, but we love him."

"That sounds like the opposite of my brother."

"Oh really? What is he like?" Don was already almost finished patching me up. I was almost sad; worried that our conversation would have to end so soon.

"Well, my brother... he's very independent. He plays video games a lot, locks himself in his room, and he's very very quiet. He usually blasts his music really loud. Whether it's school or other outdoor activities, he decides everything on his own. He doesn't really talk to me, either. I rarely see him, since he's locked up in his room all the time."

He nodded. "Ohh, I see. Are you close with your family?"

"No."

"Wow, you didn't hesitate at all when I asked. Are you on bad terms with your family?" He was finishing up now. I looked down to see the stitches that sealed up my deepest cuts. I wondered how he had done it so fast and so smoothly, but I guessed he had a lot of practice, thanks to Raph.

"I guess you could say that." I shrugged, not wanting to go into more detail. Don understood and finally finished up, wrapping bandages around both my arms.

"Did it hurt?" He asked suddenly while he cleaned his supplies.

"What, the stitches? Well I guess it wasn't too bad, you were distracting me the entire time, so thanks. I tolerate pain pretty well, too."

He nodded, proud of himself. "Yeah. I've gotten so used to stitching someone up that I can just easily talk to them knowing I won't mess up. I can't be too over confident though..."

I was glad our conversation ended on that note. I was especially glad he was able to distract me from my depressing thoughts. I silently thanked him for that.

"Thanks for patching me up," I smiled. He looked up and gave me a small smile in return.

"Okay... so. I know you probably don't feel up to talking about this but..."

"Right. I know, I should tell you what happened and... yeah. Okay." I thought for a moment, remembering Raph and Leo. "Guess I owe Leo and Raph some sort of explanation too. I mean, ever since I got here I haven't exactly been telling them the whole truth..."

Don smiled again. "Don't worry, talking about it out loud instead of keeping it bottled up inside will make you feel a lot better."

I felt glad meeting Don. He seemed to understand what to do, and he didn't judge me for the cuts I had.

"Do you want to go to the living room to talk to them now? Or do you want to wait until morning?"

I glanced up at him. "I thought they were sleeping?"

"Oh, trust me. I highly doubt they went to sleep. But I think it would be best if you rested first." He smiled, and opened the door. "Come on, you can sleep in my bed tonight. It's warmer there. I'll sleep in the living room."

"No... it's really okay... I- " I stopped as soon as he gave me this look that told me not to resist. I sighed, and pushed myself off of the bed. My arms ached, but it was nothing I couldn't handle.

As soon as I was on both my feet, my head throbbed in pain. I felt myself falling forward slightly, but a hand came down on my shoulder, holding me up.

"Are you okay?" I looked up and saw his eyes only inches away, staring into mine. I quickly looked away, pushing his arm off.

"Yeah. Just tired."

"No. I think it's more than that... I think you may be- Hey, are you okay? Leanne? Leanne!"

I didn't even realize that my eyes were slowly closing at this point. I really wanted to reply to Don, but my voice just wouldn't come out. I felt myself slowly drifting into the darkness. _Not again..._I thought helplessly. _This whole passing out thing is getting really freaking annoying._...

Everything was dark again. I could feel myself being lifted, carried, and placed down gently. The surface I was laying on was soft, and I could feel myself sinking into it slightly. I lifted my eyelids a little crack, and tried to focus my vision. All I saw was a few blurry figures on both sides of my bed, staring at me creepily. I closed my eyes again, and listened to what they were saying.

"She really needs to stop passin' out." Brooklyn accent. Obviously Raph.

"It's not her fault, Raph. She's Anemic. And she has been for a while, as far as I can tell. The sudden huge amount of blood that she lost today was too overwhelming for her body, so that's why she keeps passing out. I've done blood tests on her and the results aren't very great. She has extremely low levels of iron, and well, I'd go into more detailed terms but I don't think you guys want to hear me go on about things you guys don't understand. No offense." He paused for a moment. "But all-in-all, she's pretty unhealthy. Thankfully she doesn't need a blood transfusion or anything... she didn't lose enough blood for that."

I felt myself twitch when he revealed he had done blood tests on me, but I hoped they hadn't noticed.

"Well. How're her arms?"

"I was surprised to see that they weren't infected; The bandages were just terribly wrapped. She cut pretty deep, but she didn't cut anything vital...she was close to it though."

"Um... That's good. I think."

"By the way, Leo." Don's voice sounded a little further away. I didn't even hear them walking towards the door. "I've never seen you so... well, flustered before. I don't think you guys reacted well to the situation..."

"Shut up Don," Still Raph's voice. "How the hell're we supposed to know what to do in a situation like that? I usually see people fightin' for their lives, not tryin' to take away their own. At first I thought she was just pissed off earlier and that she was bein' over emotional, 'cause I saw her throwin' her phone and stuff. But those cuts... what the hell. Do people actually pull that sort of shi-"

"Raph, calm down." Leo's voice was calm and collected. His tone was very hushed. "Don, I just didn't know what to do. It surprised me, I guess. She doesn't seem like that type of person. She's so young... she should be out enjoying life. Enjoying things that WE aren't able to do."

Everything went silent. I thought they had left, so I opened my eyes a tiny crack. I saw their figures standing by the doorway. Don finally spoke, "Let's just talk in the morning. I wouldn't mind getting a bit of rest myself. You guys should get to bed too, so that when she wakes up we'll all be here ready to listen to what she has to say."

My eyes grew heavier and I could feel my exhaustion taking over. In the distance, I heard Raph snort as their voices disappeared down the hall. "Mikey's in for a _big_ surprise tomorrow..."

* * *

_**YAY I posted chapter 4! I'm actually still working on chapter 5 right now, but I'm seriously almost done. Hope the length of these chapters are okay with you guys~ By the way, Thank you all so much for the reviews and stuff. You have no idea how much it encourages me to write on! :D Yaaaaaay if I had chocolate I'd be throwing them at you guys right now as a thanks. LOL okay yeah, i'll be back in a day or so to post the next chapter!~**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Yup, I just wrote almost 5000 words for this chapter. I was planning on cutting it off somewhere and make it into two chapters but I wasn't sure where. So I just decided to leave it long to give you guys a nice gift or something idfk. next chapter will probably be shorter okay LOL.**

**Hope I kept the turtles in character in this chapter. If you feel like they should be acting a bit more different, let me know. I think I need to try walking around in their shoes for a bit and pretend to be them to get a good understanding of their personalities. Other than that, enjoy.**

**& Thank you all so much for the reviews! They all mean so much to me. **

** phoenix's tale, umm .. sorry for leaving cliffhangers? ):**

* * *

I awoke to a loud, girlish scream coming from the door way. Bewildered, I sat up quickly, perhaps too quickly, and felt my head collide with a bar located above my head. I realized that I was sleeping in a bunk bed, and more specifically, I was sleeping on the bottom bunk. A scream escaped through my lips as I felt myself fall back into the soft bed. I groaned in pain, clutching my head closer to my chest.

"Oh shi- I mean um, oh shell. Uh... Sorry... dudette?" An unfamiliar voice. I quickly assumed it was one of the four turtles, so I mentally prepared myself for what he would look like. I opened my eyes again.

His appearance was just the same as his brothers, green, but a darker shade of green, he had an orange colored bandana covering his eyes and he carried nun chucks in his belt. I stared at his belt, then back at his face. He was already beside me, his hands in the air on either side of this head. His eyes were wide with surprise.

His gaze slowly caught mine, and he smiled.

"Whoa... you okay? Sorry... I seriously didn't see you there on the bottom bunk."

I raised an eyebrow, my head still spinning. "You were sleeping on the top bunk the entire night?"

"And YOU were sleeping on the bottom bunk?! What the shell are... why?! What. Who. When. Where-" someone smacked the back of his head. "Ow dude, not cool."

Raph slowly came into view from behind, his arms crossed. He smirked. "You sure were surprised, weren't ya' mikey?"

Mikey rubbed the back of his head and faced Raph. "What the – you knew about this, Raph!? Why is she here?"

Raph ignored him. "Hey Leanne, you alright? Should I get Do-"

"DID YOU GUYS WAKE THE PATIENT?" Don dashed in, breathing heavily. He pushed Mikey and Raph out of the way, and sat down on the bed next to me, looking down at the odd position I was in. I was on my side in fetal position, holding my head. "What happened? Are you okay? Are you feeling light-headed? Did you have trouble sleeping? How are your ar-"

"Mikey screamed and woke me up and I hit my head on the bar up here." I pointed to it, noticing a small dent in it. "I feel fine. My head is spinning. I slept fine. And my arms? They- they feel alright." I smiled up at him, hoping I had satisfied his questions.

His face was still hard, and serious. "You hit your HEAD?" He turned around to glare at Mikey. Mikey put his arms up, and backed away slowly.

"I... said sorry," Mikey spoke weakly, guilt spreading across his face.

"It's alright Mikey, I'll be fine. I've had worse."

"You sure have!" Don snapped, then sighed letting his expression become more relaxed. "I'll get you some ice in a second. We should get you something to eat. Is there anything you want to eat?"

"I don't eat breakfast," I replied casually.

He stared at me harder. "You... don't eat breakfast?" He sat there and stared into space for a minute, then continued on. "When do you usually eat?"

I saw Mikey and Raph standing a few meters behind Don. Raph occasionally leaned in closer to Mikey to say something, and then leaned away. I think he was breaking the news to Mikey slowly. I saw them glance over at me every once in a while. My gaze moved back to Don, who was still waiting for an answer.

"Well, usually I have a tiny snack at around 10am, and I have another tiny snack at around 2pm. Whenever I feel hungry, I chew on some gum or distract myself from eating. The only meal I usually eat is around 6pm, and it's probably a salad or just something small. Then later on I'll have a snack before I go to bed," I finished it up quickly, realizing that I don't actually eat that much throughout the day. I was sitting up now in the bed, my head hunched down a bit since I couldn't full extend it without it hitting the top bunk.

"That's ALL?" Donnie asked concerned.

I shrugged. "I don't like eating much anymore. It's sort of become a habit. Just like..." I quickly glanced down at my arms, then back up at Don. He nodded, understanding what I meant.

"When did this eating habit start?"

"Hmm. Maybe a year or two ago. Why?"

"Right... just wondering." I was a bit unsure with his response, but I let it go.

"Okay Leanne. I'm going to have to get you something to eat."

I looked up at him in surprise. Did he not hear what had I just said? "I'm not hungry. Remember? I eat at 10, and it's only a snack. And right now, it's..." I looked around the room, searching for a clock. There was nothing. "Where the heck are all your clocks?"

Don sighed, but ignored my question. "I'm going to get Mikey to cook you up a nice, healthy, filling meal. Okay?"

I frowned, feeling a bit irritated. "I'm not hungry."

Don twisted his body around, facing Mikey and Raph who were still discussing the events of last night. "Mikey, can you make her some of your special oatmeal? DON'T add anything unnecessary to it, like that one time you added a shot of Vodka to Raph's... " Don rolled his eyes as a smile grew onto Mikey's face. Raph smirked while he gave Mikey a quick high-five. "She's sick, okay? Remember that. And get a glass of orange juice ready. I'll stop by to inspect it in a bit."

Mikey jumped, straightening his feet and quickly raised his hand to his forehead, saluting Don. "Aye aye, Captain!" He strode over to the door, but looked back at me giving me a smile. "Sorry about earlier, Lea. Totally didn't mean to freak you out like that." I returned the friendly smile and nodded, letting him know it was okay. I noticed how he had called me 'Lea' instead of 'Leanne', which I thought was cute.

Mikey left the room, and Raph soon followed. I stared at Don, wondering what he was going to say next. He stayed silent for a bit, thinking, so I decided to break the silence.

"You share a room with Mikey?" I watched as he stood up off of the bed, and he sat down on a nearby stool.

"Yeah, temporarily though. I have another room, but the heater isn't working in it. I haven't had time to go to the junk yard and get the things I need to repair it. Mikey's room is the only one with a bunk bed, too. I'd love to sleep in my own room instead, but during the winter it gets freezing, especially underground..."

"We're underground?" I sounded more surprised than I was actually feeling. After meeting four giant turtles, there's nothing else that could surprise me more.

"Yeah, we're not exactly... treated nicely topside." I remembered what Raph had told me the night before, and I nodded understandingly. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions to ask me, Leanne, but I need to check your food." He stood up slowly, and made his way to the door. "Stay here."

"Wait," I called out. He turned, looking back at me. "I can go to the kitchen myself and eat. I need to walk or something. I'm actually tired of not moving." I pulled off my blankets, seeing how dirty my entire outfit actually was. "And... you guys don't happen to have clothes I could change into, do you? My clothes are filthy. It feels gross."

Don rushed towards me, grabbing my arm to help me up (not my forearms though, that would've HURT.) "I don't think you should be getting out of bed right now..."

I looked up at him, and gave him the best puppy eyes I could. "Please? I promise I'll eat if you let me get out of this room." I mostly wanted to leave so I could see more of their place, but I didn't want to say that.

He looked at my eyes and sighed. He gave in so easily. "Fine, but right after you eat, you NEED to rest. Rest is an essential part o-"

"Yes Donatello, I am very much aware that rest is an essential part of the healing process." I smiled up at him, and he let out a small laugh.

"By the way," he said, "I think we have some left over clothes left here from when our friend April used to live with us."

"Is she human? Do you know other humans?" I asked again, but realized that I'd be able to ask all my questions later. "Actually, answer that later. Just get me some clothes, I feel gross in these."

"Okay, but stay here for a minute. I'm going to run down to the storage and grab them." I nodded as he swiftly made his way out the door.

I sat there on the edge of the bed, pulling off my first hoodie. After some struggle, I pulled it off successfully but soon realized that I had yanked off both my other hoodie and my shirt along with it. I was now sitting there in just my bra and leggings. I panicked, and quickly tried to pull out my shirt that was tangled with my hoodies, but it was stuck on. _Ew... I think the three of them are stuck together because of the blood... ew._ I cringed at the thought. I looked up slowly to see Donnie standing awkwardly at the doorway holding sweatpants, a tank top, and a sweater. I felt my face go warm as I looked up at him.

"Um... here." He tossed the clothes over to me, and turned away, closing the door a little. "You have two minutes, and be careful of your stitches."

I felt so embarrassed. _Of course he just had to walk in at the same time I took it off... of course!_ I pulled off my leggings, and slipped on the soft sweatpants. I quickly tugged on the tank top that fit my figure perfectly, and decided not to put on the sweater until later, since I was feeling a little warm from... well, you know. I pulled a hair elastic out from one of my hoodie's pockets, and folded the rest of my clothes nicely on the bed. I pulled my hair up roughly into a pony tail. I stood up and walked towards the door, leaving the sweater Don had offered me behind.

"Okay, I'm done," I announced, pulling open the door. Don was leaning against the wall across from the door, waiting for me.

We made our way down the hallway in silence, and entered a large area. There was the huge television and the couch I was on located on the level I was on. I followed Don down a larger staircase, and took note of how empty the space was. He led me towards the Kitchen, which had a small table with chairs in the middle. I took a seat, and watched as Mikey got the oatmeal ready. I was wondering what sort of special oatmeal he could be preparing for me, but I waited patiently in my seat. Don went up to Mikey, and stared him down.

I looked back over towards the large area, and saw Raph beating up a huge punching bag. He was spinning, jumping, kicking, and moved around the punching bag swiftly while punching it. He reminded me of a ninja from a movie.

I was disrupted by the sound of a bowl being placed in front of me. I looked down and saw a bowl full of oatmeal, and saw little chopped up pieces of fruit in it. Beside the bowl was my glass of orange juice. I grabbed it right away, gulping it all down fast. I never realized how thirsty I actually was. As I placed the empty glass back down onto the table, I felt something cold being gently placed onto my forehead. I glanced up to see Don holding an ice pack there for me.

I moved my hand up towards the ice pack, replacing his hold on it. I thanked him quietly, and turned back towards the food in front of me. I gazed up, only to see that Mikey had sat in the chair across from me and was munching on the pizza he just re-heated. In his other hand, he was holding a comic. I couldn't quite see the name of the comic he was reading since his fingers were covering the front, but he looked like he was enjoying it. Most of his attention was on the comic, but every now and then he'd quickly glance up over his comic book to look at me. Don left the kitchen for a moment, though I had no idea why. Finally, I took a bite of my oatmeal.

I had to admit, it was a lot tastier than I thought it would be. The little chopped up fruits he added to it made it much more delicious. I finished it all easily, and felt a bit disappointed when I saw my bowl was empty. I continued to hold the ice pack to my head and sat there for a bit, waiting for Don to come back.

I watched as Mikey finished his comic, and as he gulped down his last slice of pizza before swiftly throwing his plate towards the sink. He felt my stare and gazed back at me, giving me a curious look.

"So, Lea..." He started off coolly and he leaned in towards me, "Do you... play video games?"

I giggled a bit at the randomness of his question. "Yeah, I used to play with my brother a lot. Sometimes I play with my friends, too. Why?"

He nodded in approval. "You into that older stuff? Like... Nintendo 64?"

I looked up, feeling nostalgic at the mention of the game console. I could remember when I had owned one and played Super Mario 64 and the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on it. I was practically _obsessed_ with those games when I was 7 or 8. It disappointed me however when I learned that my parents had given it away after buying us the new GameCube at the time. I nodded happily and replied, "Oh my gosh, _yes_. Do you have one?! Please tell me you have one!"

He shot up from his seat and marched around the table, grabbing my hand. "_Finally._ Someone to play with! My bro's are always too busy doin' _boring_ stuff. Let's go play!" I placed my ice pack down on the table as he pulled me up and dragged me towards the staircase. He suddenly stopped, and turned to me. "It'll be quicker if we climb."

I looked at him uncertain. "If we climb? Wher-"

Suddenly, he – literally – swept me off my feet, jumped up, kicked off the side wall, and grabbed the railing on the second floor. He pulled us up with his arm around my waist, and set me back down on my feet. My eyes were wide with surprise and confusion.

"You... what? Huh?" I gazed at him as he walked over to the television I saw the night before, and started setting up his Nintendo 64. "What the hell was that?"

"What?" he looked up at me, realizing something before responding. "Oh, you afraid of heights? Sorry, I didn't think it was THAT high up..."

"No... I mean," I looked over the railing and back towards him, "Did you actually just jump up from the first floor onto the second floor?"

"Um... yeah? Do you not know or something?" he looked at me questionably as he continued to connect the cords to the back of the Nintendo without struggle.

I started to walk slowly towards him. "Know what?"

"Me and my brothers are ninjas," He replied simply.

I snorted and smiled at him. "Really? Ninjas?"

His face looked offended for a moment as he put down the Nintendo. "No, seriously. Watch this."

Mikey started to run towards me. I felt the urge to close my eyes, but I kept them on him. He jumped over me as I gawked at him. My gaze followed him as he jumped back over the railing.

"Mikey!" I exclaimed as I ran towards the railing, looking down towards the first floor. There, I saw him roll up back onto his feet. He grinned as he ran around for a bit, twirling around while jumping off of walls and swinging around on random poles he grabbed on to. I could see Raph in the background, still beating up his punching back. Mikey looked so graceful. He did it so silently, too. It surprised me.

Finally, Mikey ran back and kicked up off of the side wall and onto the second floor again, landing perfectly on both his feet.

"Wow, Mikey. Are you guys actually ninjas?" I thought about what I said for a moment, and remembered they all had weapons that a 'ninja' could use. I realized it was silly of me to still doubt it, when evidence was clearly in front of me. "Actually. Nevermind. I believe you."

"Awesome," he beamed at me. "Now let's play some Mario Kart!"

I have to admit, playing Mario Kart with Mikey was hilarious. He got really into it and was super competitive. I don't think I had laughed that hard in weeks. It was weird hearing the sound of my laughter, but soon I couldn't hear it over the sound of Mikey's yelling and laughing as we played. During our second race, a figure walked in front of the screen. His arms were crossed and he looked down at us. I looked over at Mikey, but instead of looking at the figure, he moved his head around trying to get a better look at the screen.

"Bro, come on. We're in the middle of an important race here!" Mikey was still playing and looking at the screen. It took me a second to realize it was Don standing there. He was looking directly at me.

"Leanne! You should be resting! And you almost gave me a heart attack when I came back and you weren't in the kitch-" Don stopped himself, realizing that that wasn't what he wanted to say. "I um... I'd like to speak to you for a bit." He held out his hand. At this point, Mikey had paused the game and was staring at us. I took his hand, and he helped me up carefully.

"Awww c'mon Donnie!" Mikey whined, "We were having so much fun!"

Don rolled his eyes, "You can play again some other time. This is important."

"But Donnnnnnn, so is Mario Kart! She's the only person who'll actually play with me!" Mikey pouted, and stuck his tongue out at Don. Donnie sighed in response.

We left Mikey behind, and he led me back downstairs to another living room area, except without a television. Don sat me down on the couch, and walked around a bit, waiting. Finally, someone joined us. It was Leo.

"Hey Leo," I gave him a small smile while fidgeting around with my thumbs in my lap.

"Hi Leanne. How are you feeling?" he walked over to the couch opposite from mine and sat down, staring at me. Don sat on the arm of the couch Leo was on and stared at me as well.

"I'm feeling pretty good. Pretty full from the breakfast. Thank you for that." I was starting to mentally prepare myself. I knew they wanted the straight truth from me, and I was going to give it to them. I owed them at least that much, considering how much they had already done for me.

"Good." Leo smiled.

"Yeah... so, Leanne." Don started off. I shifted a little, feeling a bit awkward. He noticed this but continued on. "We were thinking about bringing you up to an actual hospital. My skills are just too... amateur for this sort of thing. You'd be much better off getting professional help."

I looked up at him, misunderstanding what he just said. "I need help? But you already patched me up, remember?" I held up my arms, slightly waving them around.

Don sighed. "No... I mean. There's much more to this... you do know that right? Your eating habits, your depression..." I sat there, listening carefully. "No wait, actually. Tell me: how do _honestly _you feel about yourself?"

I kept my gaze at the floor, my stomach felt like it was twisting. _What does this have to do with anything?_

"Well. I'm not a very great person. I'm a waste of space. Not worth anyone's time. I'm disgusting. Pretty pathetic, really." I listed them off effortlessly, and gazed up slowly towards their faces.

"Do you have any problems with how you look?" he continued on.

I nodded, giving him a look. "Don't alot of people?"

He replied to my nod, ignoring what I said. "Is that why you changed your eating habits a year or two ago?"

I thought about it for a minute. I guess that my eating habits did change a bit because of how lonely I had felt. I started to feel like the problem with me was my body, so I started to eat less and work out more. I was chubby at the time, being almost 150 pounds. But now I was at the 110 pound mark, and sometimes it didn't feel like it was enough. Of course, my height also had an effect on my weight but that was something I didn't care about. My weight was more important.

"I... guess so." I answered, still not understanding what he meant.

"See? I think it's possible that you may have an eating disorder. I'm not one to diagnose you; we should leave that to the professionals. But I've read about this online before, and many teenagers have eating disorders. They usually get help from doctors and therapists. It also comes along side depression, self harm, and other..." he stopped when he saw the look on my face.

I was in deep thought. I had never considered myself having an eating disorder. Sure, from time to time I'd grab some dessert but I'd usually immediately feel guilty. Still, it didn't seem likely for me to...

Suddenly, I remembered when I had officially decided to change my eating habits for good, and for the worst.

When high school started, I started to obsessively watch what I ate so I could lose weight fast. I was desperate to fit in. I just wanted to belong to some sort of... crowd. I remember at some point I grew a fear of eating, worried about getting fat again; but I also recalled how Marina was somehow able to convince me to eat a little more. She was the only one who noticed. The only one who cared. With her support, I was able to somehow maintain a more healthy weight. But when she left the country, I felt even more alone than ever.

Now, I could understand how me having an eating disorder made sense. Still, I didn't think that it was much of a problem up until now.

I could feel my facial expression going soft. I was realizing...

"Leanne?" Leo said softly, leaning forward trying to meet my gaze.

"I'm more fucked up that I thought," I whispered, looking back up at them. Don froze when he heard what I said. Leo twitched and moved his mouth to say something but was beat to it.

"No. Leanne, that's not what I mean. I mean- I just," Don stammered, trying to choose the right words. "I just don't think it's safe for you to be getting help from someone like me. You are sick. You need to understand that what you have is serious, and it does not make you... effed up. I just... we just want to help you. You could die from this."

I sat there, feeling hurt. "You really think _doctors_ and _nurses_ are going to somehow be cut out for this kind of thing?" I hissed at him, "The last thing I need is to be surrounded by people who only care for me because they're being fucking _paid _to do it."

"But you're _sick_. We care about you, and we just want to see you get better!" Don insisted, slowly getting up.

"You don't even _know_ me," I replied harshly. "So don't act like it."

"Leanne, just calm down for a minute and we'll talk this out," Leo interrupted, he was still sitting on the couch in front of mine, leaning towards me.

"No. Maybe I should just go home. I can take care of myself. If I could do it before, I'll do it again!" I was yelling now. I wasn't _mad_ at them. I just felt hurt. _They just want to get rid of me again. No one wants me around. Hah_. I started to get up, but I felt a hand come down on my shoulder. It was Don's.

"Just stop being so obstinate for a minute, and we'll talk this out," Don spoke loudly, his facial expression looked sad.

I sighed, releasing my shoulders from how tense I was a minute ago, and slumped myself back down into the couch. I raised my arms up in defeat. "Fine."

"Okay," Don spoke calmly, "So, during this, I've realized a few things."

"And what's that?" I asked, trying to calm myself down. At this point, I felt like such a burden towards them. I just wanted to go home, lock myself in my room, and just lay in my bed, thinking.

"Well, for one thing, if you were to show up there with _stitches_... there'd be no way of explaining who or which place gave them to you. You can't exactly say 'My giant turtle friend helped me out in the sewers'," he explained, looking a bit stumped by the situation. "We should have just brought you straight to the hospital last night instead. But I guess Raph didn't think it through well. Well actually, none of us did."

"Also," Leo added in, "your family must be worried."

I shook my head, giving Leo a sad smile. I could feel tears gathering in my eyes. I spoke softly, "Oh, believe me. _They don't care._"

"No, don't say that. I'm sure they- "

"They don't," I interrupted, "That night... on the roof, before I met Raph. I called them. Both of them. They were both at work, and I tried to explain to them what was happening. That I was in trouble. You know how they reacted?" I could feel my tears threatening to spill over, but I held them back trying to contain myself. "My mom didn't care. She was too busy with work, so she hung up on me. I called my dad right after, he said to simply call the police and he hung up on me too. So believe me when I say, _they don't care._"

Don and Leo remained still, not knowing how to reply.

"It's okay though," I continued on, feeling bad that I had made them feel uncomfortable. As I stood up from the couch, I could feel their gaze on me. I tried to breathe slowly to calm myself down. "I think I should go home now. I'm really sorry for bothering you guys like this. I'll be fine by myself. I've been doing it for years." I made my way towards the stairs before they could say anything. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew that I had to get out of here. I heard their footsteps trailing behind me.

"Raph!" I called out as I ran up the stairs. "Raph!" I turned and saw Raph lying down on the couch, trying to take a nap.

"Ugh," He didn't make any effort to look up at me. I noticed he had earphones in. I walked up to him and shook his arm, yanking out one of his earphones. He groaned in annoyance. "What do ya' want?"

"Take me home, okay? You're the only one who knows where it is from here."

He finally lifted his head to look at me. "_Now?_"

"Yes," I insisted urgently. "Right now."

* * *

**Okay so I just thought I should mention that this story takes place THIS year but it's with the 2k3 verse characters, if that makes sense. Ummmmmm hope this chapter was ok. I dunno. Umm I changed up their house a little, idk I wasn't sure how to describe their other one but yeah I'm sure you guy will somehow come up with your own idea of what their house looks like in your mind. Haaaa i'll start writing again in a few days.**

**Leanne is in grade 11 by the way, just thought I'd clear that up.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Just a little note before you get started. read or dont read, your choice bbys~ :**

**I found it especially difficult to write this chapter. Not because I had no idea what to do (since I've got most of the story planned out), but because I just wasn't sure how to set up the HONEST conversation between the girl and the turtles. Most of this is based off of personal experience (the depression part, not meeting the turtles...), but I've never gone through the experience of talking to someone else about my problems. Anywho, I tried to make it seem as... realistic as possible. I guess. Idk. Guess it's different for everyone.**

**And umm. I re-read chapter 5, and noticed a bunch of tiny mistakes. I almost slapped myself for them. Sorry about the mistakes guys, I never really have time to check the chapters over. **

**If you're having trouble trying to imagine what their house looks like by my description, imagine it like it's the 2007 movie house. Hope you've all watched that. Although, their TV room is located on the second level rather than on the main floor beside the kitchen... WOW i'm terrible at explaining things.**

* * *

Raph stared at me in confusion. "Whoa... wait, what? Why?" He pushed himself up into a sitting position on the couch and ripped out his other earphone, giving me his full attention.

"I..." I stopped. I quickly peeked behind me, but as I had expected, Don and Leo were standing behind me with worried looks on their faces.

My thoughts were swarming. My mind was full of thoughts, some of them were shouting at me to sit still and be cooperative while the others were shouting at me to just get the hell out of there. _These turtles just want to help me! Why am I being so stubborn right now? But... they don't have to help me. It'll just be a bother to them. God damnit. This is just getting dumb now._

"Leanne," Leo's voice spoke from behind me as I stood still facing Raph, "Sorry, that probably wasn't the right way to approach the situation. Could we... um, could we possibly ask you some stuff?"

I turned to face him. "What kind of stuff?"

"Just sit down. Don't worry, you don't have to answer if you don't want to," Don said as he started to walk slowly towards me.

Without questioning him, I sat down on the couch next to red-masked turtle. His gaze shifted towards Leo and Don as they moved closer to where we were sitting.

"Now what?" I asked them, watching as they settled down around me. I could tell Raph was beyond confused at this point.

"What the hell is goin' on?" Raph demanded with a bewildered expression on his face.

"Right now, we're just trying to understand Leanne's current condition," Don explained. "Earlier I didn't take how she was feeling into account and I blurted out some things she just wasn't mentally prepared for." He looked at me. "Sorry about that."

I didn't respond to his apology. "Well, what do you guys need to ask me?"

"About... well," Leo paused, trying to choose the right words. "Well." He looked over at his purple-masked brother, silently pleading for some back up. Don crossed his arms and thought for a moment about how he could ask me delicately.

"Well," Don started, "What led you to start... the self infliction?" He bit his lip and stared at my arms for a second before looking back up into my eyes.

I could feel my cheeks grow slightly warm. For a moment I truly regretted not putting on the sweater that Don had offered me earlier. "Ah." I replied. I wasn't sure how to begin. I shifted my gaze between the three turtles, looking at their expressions. Don and Leo both looked almost worried, while Raph still looked mildly confused but he also looked slightly concerned and tired. I suddenly felt bad for interrupting Raph when he was trying to nap earlier. I sighed, and finally decided to speak up.

"So, I guess I started because I felt lonely or something. Not good enough. I felt like... like no matter how hard I try for something, whether it be for school work or for just... anything, it's never good enough. I will never be good enough. Also, around that time my parents started to avoid hanging around at home anymore and just started to totally avoid me and my brother. I don't know why, either. It was super frustrating." I looked up at Don and Leo.

Don just nodded at me to continue on. I guessed that he wanted me to just keep talking about my problems or something. I wasn't sure what sort of problems I wanted to talk to them about, but the words just kept flowing from my brain and out of my mouth after being held back for years. I began to vent to them about problems with my friends, my parents, and my school grades that were growing worse each semester.

After that, I started describing to them in great detail about how I never intended to continue cutting after the first time I tried it, but then I just started to do it more and more because I craved the feeling of it. Whenever I was sad, I would cut. Whenever I felt guilty, I would cut. It took over my mind, and it became what seemed to be the solution to all my problems. Becoming obsessed with self-harm was something I was not expecting. I ended it off by telling them that overall, my self-harm was mostly associated with my parents, high-school, and my self-esteem. They listened to me without interrupting at all. At times, I could see Raph wanted to say something or comment on the things I had said, but he would stop as soon as he saw the deadly looks his brothers were giving him.

When I was finished, I didn't realize how silent they were. The entire them, they stayed silent and stared at me. I stayed silent after I finished, my mouth feeling dry. I hadn't realized how long I'd been going on for. Finally, Leo spoke up.

"How are you feeling now, Leanne?" Leo asked.

To my surprise, I felt... slightly better. After speaking out my problems to these turtles, I felt relieved getting my problems all off my chest. "I feel... alright, I guess." I gave him a small, sincere smile.

"Wow. A little girl like you, and you're already goin' through all that?" Raph spoke up this time. He was sitting on the couch, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

"Um, I'm not little. I'm actually a teenager," I replied, feeling slightly annoyed. I felt a hand touch my shoulder lightly. I looked up, seeing Don.

"You know, you don't have to go through this all by yourself, right? You know you can get help? And I'm not talking about professional help, like doctors and therapists... I'm talking about, well, speaking about it to people you can trust. Like..." He paused, thinking about it for a minute, "Us, for example."

I looked up at him, doubting what I had just heard for a second. Trusting... them? These turtles that I just met? It seemed a little... odd. I mean, considering I just met them and they barel- well, they know a bit about me now. They didn't know the basic things- like what my favorite color was or my favorite food. Still, after all they had done for me... I wouldn't mind getting closer to them. They listened to me, and I think that maybe after some time of getting to know them and me for them, I'd be able to learn to trust them.

The three of them were staring at me with soft eyes. Don gave me a small smile

"I..." I paused, letting the last bits of doubt inside me disintegrate. I wanted to be honest to them now. I was tired of blocking people out of my world and being alone. I needed someone. "Yeah... Okay."

"What? You're just gonna trust us? Jus' like that?" Raph gave me a look.

"Well... I guess... yeah," I replied. "I know it seems really sudden... but I... I just want to try trusting someone for once."

"Okay," Don pulled me into a small one-armed hug, but quickly pulled away after a second. "Trust us, okay? Don't keep this to yourself."

I nodded, slumping myself back into the couch. My head was starting to hurt again, but I couldn't care less. I finally found individuals I could learn to trust. "How long was I talking for?"

"Maybe an hour? An hour and a half? I don't know, but it was a while," Leo replied.

I stared at him. "What? An hour? Okay, I've _never_ talked for that long before. Like, an hour straight without breaks? No wonder my mouth is so dry. And... ugh, my head hurts." I used my index fingers to massage my temples lightly.

"Let me get you some water and Advil. Don't move," Don rushed downstairs to the kitchen.

Leo and Raph remained silent when Don left. It left the atmosphere extremely awkward for when Don would return.

"So..." I spoke up, breaking the silence again. "What-"

"DUDES!" Mikey's voice echoed through-out their home. I could hear his footsteps approaching us.

"What?" Leo turned to where Mikey's voice was coming from.

"Where. Is. The. Cat. Food?" Mikey demanded anxiously.

"Cat food? Why would we know where your cat food is? You're the one who took on the full responsibility of taking care of Klunk," Leo responded calmly.

"Yeah I know but... Oh hey Lea!" He was much closer to where they were now.

"Hey, Mikey!" I smiled at him.

"What's going on here?" He asked as he plopped himself beside me on the couch. "I wanna be part of the meeting too!"

"Mikey, jus' get outta here. This is a meeting for grown-ups," Raph said rolling his eyes.

Mikey frowned. "I can be grown up too!" He clung onto my arm and stared desperately into my eyes. "Can I know what's happening too? Please?"

"Mikey..." Raph gave him a death-glare, but Mikey remained un-phased.

Mikey stuck out his tongue at Raph. "Come on! I can keep secrets! I know when to be serious! C'mon, why do you guys always leave me out of these things?"

Mikey and Raph continued bickering at each other until Don came back with some pills and a glass of water. He handed them over to me, and I took them immediately. Don must've said something to Leo, because after whispering something into his ear, Leo grabbed Mikey and Raph's arms and dragged them away, even after Mikey's many protests. It was just me and Don now.

"So, I've been thinking about what we could do..."Don said.

I looked at him hopefully. "Oh, yes. And?"

"Well. I was thinking... maybe you should stay with us until your wounds heal. Or you could stay at your home. Whatever works best for you? But I think it'd be best if you stayed here so we can keep an eye on you... if you know what I mean."

I nodded understandingly. "Yeah, okay. I think that would work... but what about my brother? And my dog? I can't just leave them home alone!"

"It's okay, we'll figure that out. How about we bring you home first to pack up some clothes, and go speak to your brother about what's going on?"

"Well. I don't know about telling him that I... well, I don't know. I just don't know if he's mature enough to handle it yet. I... well, yeah. Anyway. Yeah, I'll talk to him. Tell him I'll be gone for a while. Stuff like that."

Don stood up and took out a weird-looking cell phone. It was shell-shaped, and had a little antenna sticking out the end. "Okay, so It's about 1pm now. Are you hungry?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I'm good."

"I'll get Mikey to cook you something, but we're kind of running low on food so we have to go grocery shopping too..." Don admitted suddenly.

"Yeah, don't worry. I can help with that. Let's go to my house first, then I'll talk to my brother and we can go grocery shopping afterwards," I suggested.

"Yeah, Okay. I'll go tell my brothers what we're up to and we can get going."

"Sure. I'll just go... um. Freshen up, I guess. I still feel like a mess."

Don laughed. "Bathroom is down the hall, across the hall from Mikey's room. By the way, I put your shoes beside Mikey's bed." He stood up and made his way towards the direction where Leo walked off with the two bickering brothers.

"Alright, thanks. Tell me when we're leaving." I chugged down the last bit of water that he had given to me, and made my way over to the bathroom. My bladder was on the verge of exploding. After finally locating the door, I pushed it open and searched for a light switch. After a few seconds of searching, I found the light switch on the wall behind the door. _How annoying. The light switch should be on the other side of the door, so you can just turn on the light faster. Why the heck is it behind the door?_ I closed the door behind me, and observed their bathroom for a minute.

It was pretty clean. Well, for four GUY turtles, it was pretty clean. I mean, there was just dust in some random places, and there weren't really many things they needed to put on their bathroom counter other than toothbrushes. But there were other things on the counter that I didn't expect them to have; like a hairbrush, and some hair rejuvenating products. They didn't have hair, so I assumed that it was there for when their human friend would stay with them.

I stared at the hairbrush, debating whether or not to use it. There was hair tangled in the bristles of the brush, and some of the strands were... very short. And grey. Their friend was an old woman? I decided to leave the hair brush alone, just to be on the safe side. I looked into the mirror and stared at my face. I hadn't washed my face the night before, and I could practically feel it breaking out already. I turned on the warm water, and started splashing my face and massaged my skin lightly. It was very refreshing. After turning off the water, I wiped my hands with a towel that was hanging on a towel rack beside me and stared back into the mirror. I leaned forward into the counter, and continued to stare at my appearance. My eye bags were huge and I looked exhausted. I untangled my hair gently with my fingers, and straightened out some parts of my hair that looked odd.

After doing my business (After... peeing), I left the bathroom and walked towards Mikey's door. I knocked gently on it, just in case Mikey happened to be inside.

"Mikey?" I said softly before pushing open the door. There was no reply.

I walked over to the bunk bed and tugged on my shoes. After straightening out the bed I slept in the night before and grabbing my filthy clothes, I made my way out the door and back towards their living room. Realizing the no one was present yet; I sat down on the couch and clutched my clothes towards my chest as waited patiently for one of them to show up. That's when I heard a familiar sound.

_Meow._

I felt myself flinch when I heard it. Was their home haunted? What was going on? I distinctly remembered hearing something just like that the night before.

Standing up from the couch, I slowly walked towards the direction of where the sound was coming from. I could feel the anxiety building up in my chest. I was just a big scaredy-cat. It's really no wonder I hated horror/thriller movies. My grip tightened on my clothes as I continued on towards the source. I almost reached the bottom of the stairs before a small orange figure jumped in leaped in front of me. I tried to jump back in surprise, but I only felt myself trip on the stairs and fall backwards painfully with a loud thud. I let out a yelp in pain.

"Meow," sounded the little figure on the ground. I stared at it, realizing it was a small orange cat. I smiled a little. I couldn't believe that they had a cat. That was incredibly adorable. I had a strange weakness for guys who liked cats – in the least creepy sense, of course!

"Hey, what happened?" I saw as Leo jumped down from the second floor to where I was. He was beside me in seconds and knelt beside me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry. Your cat just scared me." I stared back at the orange feline as it turned its back towards me and walked off slowly in another direction.

"Oh yeah. That's Klunk," he said as he helped me back up. "Mikey found him one Christmas a few years ago. He was late for Christmas dinner! He kept us and our guests waiting the entire time." Leo chuckled, shaking his head slowly. "Boy, were we mad." I giggled at the thought as he pulled me up.

Suddenly, Don jumped down from the second floor. He had a bag on his back and I saw his weapon strapped on his shell as well. He looked at me. "You ready to go?" I nodded. "Raph. Hurry up!"

I heard Raph groan in the distance. "Man, can't a turtle just be a turtle for once?" He slowly made his way down the stairs.

Don gave him a look. "Well, you know... since we're mutated, we've obtained the ability to perform and move around like humans. We just... don't look like them. Luckily we weren't stuck with the one expectation that turtles are well-known for; and that's being velocity challenged. I could really go on and describe "

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard this a million times." Raph waved his hand at him before turning over to me. "Alright. I'll carry ya if ya want. Just show me where to go once I get to the top of that building where I found you; 'cuz that's where I'm headed."

"Wait, are just you and Don coming?" I asked.

"Well, actually I decided that all four of us should come. I mean, if you're going to be... well, staying with us, then I figured that maybe we should all know where you live in case of emergencies." Don responded.

"Okay. Makes sense." I looked back to Raph. "Should I ride on your back?"

Raph grabbed me and pulled me onto his shell roughly. I squeaked in surprise. He smirked at my reaction. "Duh. Where else would ya ride?" I snorted at how dirty it sounded but I was glad none of them caught it.

"Not so fast, Raphael." Leo spoke up. "We need to wear these disguises before going topside. It's sort of the middle of the day." Don handed Leo some clothes that he yanked out from his bag. "We need to be careful and not be spotted."

Raph groaned loudly but swiped the clothes from Leo. "MIKEY. HURRY UP." He yelled before yanking on the clothes.

It took a while, but finally Mikey showed up. His comic books were apparently "keeping him from coming down earlier". After a few minutes of bickering we finally left their home, with me on Raph's back. We climbed up the manhole and eventually ended up on the roofs. They ran and leapt from building to building at such an alarming speed that we were in my neighbourhood before I even knew it. We landed on the building where Raph and I met, and he waited for my instructions on where to go from there. To my surprise, they were incredibly patient.

"Alright. Let's jump down to that alley, and we'll walk there. It isn't far, so just follow me. It'll be weird if people see you guys jumping down to my window or something." I pointed to the alley where I was almost cornered by Purple Dragons.

They jumped down, and Raph let me off his shell so I could walk on my own. Their appearances were quite funny to me. They all wore huge hoodies and pants. Not only that, but their hoodie colors coordinated with their mask colors so it was easy to differentiate between them. I had to bite my lip to keep myself from laughing. I watched as they pulled up their hoods to hide their faces. I clutched my dirty clothes in my arms.

"Kay, follow me. Don't do anything weird, okay?" I instructed.

Don and Leo chuckled. "Don't worry Leanne," Leo said. "We've done this before."

"Okay..." I replied still unsure.

We walked down the alley, and finally reached the street. I could see the gas station in the distance as I walked towards my home. I felt uneasy the entire walk there, worried that someone would think it was weird that four large men were following me home. I could hear that they were talking about something, but I could barely keep up with their conversation. Something about a 10 foot-tall cow? Something like that. It was probably a conversation that Mikey sparked up. After a good 7 minute walk, we made it to my front door. I reached into the pocket of my dirty hoodie that I was holding, grabbing the keys that were (thankfully) still inside. I heard the click from my door as I unlocked it, and pushed it open slowly. I could feel my turtle friends behind me getting ready to jump inside – as I also was – but I could only freeze at who was anxiously waiting for me inside.

* * *

**Oh lord please don't hate me for not posting in like 2 months. It's been a really rough two months and bleh. Yeah sorry this chapter isn't really well-written. I totally rushed it and only checked it over like twice but I swear I'll make the next chapter better :c**

**xoxo**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys, it's been just over a month (sorry!) I said I would publish more but I just haven't gotten around to doing it. Yeah, not my favourite chapter. Sorry sorry sorry x1000. Um. enjoy! Thank you to all those who have been reading since the beginning, and to those who have just recently started reading it, thank you thank you thank x1000000 *hearts everywhere*! sorry for typos. I really tried to take my time editing this and I want to post this by tonight or else I'll leave it for like a whole week, but I have a bunch of tests this week and yeah SORRRYYY FOR THE RANT XOXO**

**hey btw, if you happen to notice any typos or mistakes, feel free to point them out so I can change them! it's one of my biggest pet peeves when I'm reading a story! When there's a typo and I catch it while I'm really into the story I just OIADJAKLSJD! but yeah.**

* * *

I gawked at the person standing before me. I expected everything to happen smoothly; but this was the last thing I was expecting.

"Leanne!" the voice cried out suddenly before grabbing me and pulling me into a hug.

"Fl... Flynn?!" I squeaked out. My brother rarely showed any concern for me – or for anyone in that matter.

I never realized how tall my little brother was. He was only 13 years old, yet was the same height as me. Maybe even a little taller. His hair was a bit longer than the last time I saw it, but it wasn't crazy long. It was just long enough to cover his forehead. I couldn't remember the last time he hugged me like that. It felt weird; almost awkward. I couldn't bring myself to return the embrace.

"Where WERE you?!" He pulled away from the hug and gave me a suspicious look. "You were gone for practically the entire night!"

I stared at him, unable to say what I was thinking. _Oh you know, I got hurt so I chilled with some giant turtles that helped me out. Oh yeah, and I'll be staying with them for a while._ Yeah, that doesn't exactly just roll off the tongue. That's when I remembered the four giant turtles that were standing behind me. I spun around anxiously to see why they were so silent, but to my surprise – and relief – they weren't there.

"What?" Flynn asked. "What is it?"

I turned back to face him. "Oh... nothing." I gave him a tiny push deeper into the house so he wouldn't get a good view out the door. I bit my lip and looked back again quickly. "Just... y'know."

He rolled his eyes. "Okay, well. I've been really worried."

I snorted. "You? Worried about me? Since when?" I placed my hand on his forehead, then his neck. "Are you sick or something? This isn't like you."

"No. I'm fine." He pushed my arm away. "Maybe you just don't know me that well."

I thought about it for a minute. "Yeah. I guess." I pulled off my shoes, placing them on the shoe rack.

"Well?" Flynn asked again, his arms crossed.

I sighed. "Do you really want the truth about what happened?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation.

I sighed again, and stuck my head out the door. "Guys, you can come back now. We might as well just tell him the truth." I knew they were still there. Freakin' ninjas and their disappearing tricks.

All four of them showed up at once. They jumped down from... god knows where, and landed swiftly on the sidewalk just in front of my home. Seriously... Ninjas.

Their hoods were still up, so their faces weren't visible enough for my brother to see. I waved them in. "Come on in, guys."

Leo stepped in first and rubbed his feet on the doormat, as if to clean off the mud or dirt that might have gotten stuck on them. "Thank you," he said to me politely. I smiled.

Don followed, also quickly rubbing his feet on the doormat before smiling and walking inside. Raph came after and Mikey as well. One by one they awkwardly passed Flynn, not really knowing where to go or what to say to him. They kept their heads low, so their faces wouldn't be revealed just yet. Flynn stared at them before walking over to my side while I closed the door.

"Who... who are these people?" Flynn whispered to me.

I bit my lip again. "You... you'll be surprised. They're... they're not like normal guys. They're awesome though. Trust me."

I led them to the living room area with a few couches and chairs, and made sure everyone had a seat before exposing the secret. I wasn't sure how my brother was going to take it all, but I knew he would have to be sitting down and... well, ready.

I started off by telling him that I went for a walk. I told him about the purple dragons, and made a little white lie about how I fell and hurt my arm, rather than saying that I cut myself. I told him how they helped me patch up my wounds and that I kept passing out from lack of energy and from the blood loss. My brother stayed silent the entire time, until they finally revealed what they looked like. Raph sort of just ripped off his hood and complained that it was too hot in the house. I expected my brother to be quite startled, but instead he... passed out. Thank god he was on the couch. He stared at Raph with his mouth wide open before falling back and just passing out. It was awkward for a minute or two before Mikey spoke up.

"Your brother... his name," He said, "It's like that guy's name... in that movie called Tangled."

I snorted. "Yeah, ever since that movie came out people at school have teased him by calling him 'Flynn Rider'. Weird how it's spelt the same way too."

"Yeah, anyway," Don interrupted suddenly. "We really need to figure out what we're going to do here. If you're going to stay with us... what are we going to do with your younger brother? I thought it could be possible for him to stay home alone for a while, since you two barely communicate and like you said, he's quite independent. But... he was worried about you when you didn't come home." Don sighed. "I don't know how we're going to do this."

Leo thought to himself for a minute. "Maybe we coul-"

Flynn awoke suddenly, pushing himself off the couch. He glanced around at us, and caught sight of Raph who was the only one hood-less. Flynn immediately jumped up and squished himself beside me. "_Oh god_, they're still here. I'm hallucinating, aren't I?" He swallowed hard. "What... are they?"

"No, I swear this is real. You aren't hallucinating. They're... giant turtles. They're really nice, I promise." I insisted.

"Why are they turtles? Why do they speak... English? Why do they even speak at all?" Flynn babbled on, having so many questions.

"Actually... I was hoping they'd tell me about them as well. They haven't told me yet how they became like this and about the other humans that they know, so maybe now you and I will have our questions answered," I said.

"Right," Leo said in response. "I'll tell you everything you want to know about us and our family."

Leo talked for a while, but Flynn and I were so caught up in the way he told the story that it was over before we knew it. All our questions answered. We learned about their mutations, their almost-endless fight with a guy named the Shredder, a man named Bishop, and their good friends Casey and April whom they haven't spoken to in months since they disappeared. Mikey would sometimes add in sound effects when Leo would talk about some of their major battles, but Raph would punch him in the shoulder to shut him up.

"Any more questions?" Leo asked.

Flynn and I looked at each other for a moment, but then looked back to Leo. I shook my head, but Flynn spoke up.

"So, what do you guys want with my sister? Up until now you guys have been helping her, and that's great, but what else do you want now?"

Don's eyes met Leo's, then mine. We weren't sure what to tell him. I sure as hell wasn't ready to tell him about what I was doing to myself, but I don't think I informed any of them about that.

Leo took a breath. "Okay, well the truth is..."

"Raph's sick!" I said quickly._ SICK?!_ I thought to myself. _Idiot... how am I going to back this up? I need to think before I speak. Damn._

My brother and the four turtles all looked at me strangely. Raph gave me an odd look – his face full of confusion and anger. "The fuck? No I..."

"YES!" Don spoke loudly. Boy, did he catch on quickly. "Yes, Raph is really sick and needs... help."

Flynn tilted his head slightly while staring at Don. "Why would he need your help? Shouldn't you be able to take care of him?"

"No, you don't understand... um, Flynn. It's a psychological disease that affects his... emotions." Don explained to him nervously, "Uh, when he meets new people, he becomes extremely attached to them for a month or two... and when separated from them, he becomes mentally unstable. And I mean, _really_ unstable. He'll throw tantrums, attack random people, and could be a real threat. It's a... side effect of the mutagen that we were exposed to when we were still babies. Yeah, I'm doing a bunch of research on it since we can't exactly get help from... people."

My brother took in everything that Don was saying. I crossed my fingers, hoping Don had convinced him of this ridiculous theory.

"...Alright then," my brother responded uncertainly. "Since he just met me as well, does that mean I have to go too?"

"Yes! Exactly, Flynn," Don smiled, and looked over at Raph. "You'd be much better with them around, wouldn't you, Raphie?"

I could see Raph moving his jaw slightly, as if he were gritting his teeth together. Mikey's hand was covering his own mouth as he tried to stifle back his laugh. Raph caught my gaze, and I gave him a look pleading for him to play along. "...Yeah," Raph said quietly before glaring his eyes at Don. "...Definitely."

Leo bit his lip, trying to stay as composed as possible. He seemed like one of the more responsible brothers, but I guess even he has to joke around with them too. Mikey tried his best to hide his face and fight back his laughter.

I smiled and looked at Flynn. He still looked unconvinced, but if he still believed in a bit of what they were telling him, then that was good enough for me.

"Right. Okay, well I guess we sh – NO! I forgot to tell you!" Flynn jumped up and stood in front of me.

"What?" I asked him as I could feel worry building up in my gut. "What? What is it?"

"It's... It's Furly." He said quietly. "Last night... I went downstairs to let him out to pee and stuff, and he... he wasn't there. I went upstairs to see if he was with you but he wasn't. You weren't there either, so I waited and waited and... you never... he never..." He muttered off helplessly. I started feeling guilty.

"Shhh, it's okay. Calm down." I reach up and put my hand on his shoulder. "Have you checked everywhere?"

He nodded. "I did. I scoped the entire house. I even checked mom and dad's room. You know, they haven't been home in days."

My eyes widened. "Days? How many days?"

"Six."

I froze. Six days? That was a bit much, even for them. Usually they came home after a day or 2 even if it was just for a few hours. "Are you sure?"

He sighed, "Of course. I always keep track of when they come home and when they leave."

I looked at him, sort-of impressed by how aware he was of everything that was going on in our home, but forced myself to focus back onto our current problem. "How long has he been gone? Last night I saw him at around 10pm."

"It's like, 2pm right now, right? 14 hours." His voice was shaking a little.

"Okay... well. It's okay, don't worry. We'll find him." I put my hand on his shoulder. I was so worried. I forced myself not to tear up. I loved Furly so much, but I had to stay strong. What good would I be if I started bawling in front of them? I stood up and turned to my turtle friends. "Looks like I won't be able to stay with you guys right now. We need to find Furly first."

Leo stood up, followed by Don and Mikey. "Don't worry, we can help. We can try and scope out the area."

I shook my head. "No, I couldn't possibly ask you guys to do that..."

"No, it's completely fine. The more of us there are, the more ground we'll cover. It'll be faster if we work together." Leo reassured me. I looked over at Don and Mikey, who were both smiling and nodding at me. Raph on the other hand was still slightly pissed off at the little white lie we told my brother, and stared at the floor pretending he wasn't listening. I'm sure he was, though.

So, we decided to split up. The area I planned to check out wasn't too far from home, so if I ever got in trouble I could just run back. It was the same for my brother too. Leo told us that if we ever did get in trouble, then we should scream and they'd come running to get us. The turtles decided to search from the roofs so they could get a better view of everything. They also said it would be much faster – and safer – for them. I assumed they just didn't want to get seen since it was the middle of the day.

After quickly changing into my own clothes and deciding on a time when we should meet up, we finally headed our separate ways (for the time being). I walked down the sidewalk quickly, looking down every alley I passed, and looking behind/under every dumpster I could find. There was nothing. It was starting to seem hopeless. If the guys had already found him we wouldn't still be searching for him. Soon, 5 minutes turned to 30 minutes. Still, nothing. I could feel myself getting more and more frustrated.

"Furly," I repeated again for the 40th time, hoping the little fur ball would hear me. "Furly baby, where are you?"

I started down this big alley that I was unfamiliar with. I was far from where my original area was, but I sure as hell wasn't going to just give up on searching for my dog.

I continued down the alley, looking around for him. "Furly... Furly, are you there? Come here!"

I didn't know what time it was without my phone, but I started to assume it was just after 3pm. I sighed, watching as my breath turn into a visible little cloud before disappearing. It was already starting to get cold. I wasn't surprised, though. It _was_ the middle of December.

Suddenly, something caught my eye. I looked over and saw two big men walking down the same alley that I was walking in. I looked around anxiously, trying to find something to hide behind. After spotting two garbage cans, I jumped behind them and covered my mouth. I had a feeling that I've met them before.

As they approached, I made sure that I wasn't going to just jump out an attack them again. I didn't want to do anything stupid. Their voices were quite low, but I could still hear the conversation they were having.

"... So what're we gonna do? The boss is goin' ta be real mad at us again for not gettin' anythin'!"

"Don't worry about it man, we got... well, somethin'. Probably ain't gonna be useful to the boss, but I guess it could be used for experimentin' on or somethin'."

"Yeah, I guess. But what 'bout that lil' girl we were chasin' last night? We haven't found her yet either and it's been almost a whole day!"

"Well, maybe if we jus' grab a random chick and bring 'er in and pretend it's her then we'll be off the hook!" He laughed.

My eyes widened. I remembered who they were; well at least who one of them was. I was pretty sure I broke his nose. I swallowed hard. What were they talking about? What _experimenting_? What were they going to experiment _on_? I couldn't help but take a peek over the garbage cans to see what they were talking about.

Suddenly, something yanked my hair, pulling me along with it. I yelped at the sudden pain in my head as my hair continued to be ripped out. My eyes were cloudy as I looked up, seeing the two big guys that I was trying to spy on.

"Hah! It worked. Wow man, I didn't think it was gonna work but it did! But hey... this is the girl that hurt you?" one of them pulled me along by my hair. I was just barely on my toes, trying to keep my balance so I wouldn't fall and put my head in any more pain.

"Yeh', that's her." A hand came hard on my right cheek. He _slapped_ me. I held my hair, begging them to let me go. A flavour of metal coated my tongue. Blood.

"Heh, she's so tiny. Can't believe you let 'er hurt ya," the one holding my hair smirked and tugged me around playfully by my hair.

"Please... let me go," I whimpered out.

"Shut up, asshole." The other one replied to his friend, ignoring me. "Let's jus' take her to the boss already."

The one holding my hair tugged my hair down, throwing me along with it. I could feel the palms of my hands skidding against the pavement. The burning sensation in my palms felt soothing to me compared to the way I was dangled around by my hair. I attempted to let out a scream, but they instead covered my mouth with their hands before duct taping it shut. My eyes were flowing with tears as I whimpered. I was terrified.

The guy I injured pulled me over his shoulder. I thrashed myself around, knowing it was hopeless, but still... they were stupid enough to not tie my hands and legs together. The guy seemed to effortlessly carry me along, looking as if he wasn't affected at all by how crazy I was acting. I stopped thrashing around, and pretended to pass out. I wanted to wait for my moment to escape.

"Heh, looks like she passed out." I felt him smirk.

I felt the other one looking at me. "Yeah man. She's out like a light."

"But for real man, what're we gonna do about this?" the guy shook a bag that he was holding. "Leave it? Bring it? It's kinda cute..."

The guy holding me sighed. "Don't be such a pussy. Just _kill_ it."

"But... the little thing is so..."

"God damnit, man. Fine. _I'll_ do it." Suddenly, I was thrown to the ground. I winced at the pain, but managed to open my eyes a crack to see what they were going to do. I continued to play on as if I were still passed out. I had a terrible feeling.

They guy holding me grabbed the bag from his friend and opened it viciously, trying to spill out the contents of the bag.

My eyes widened as I saw what I was hoping wasn't true. Furly's little body rolled out. His once white shining coat of fur was now covered in a dark shade of red.

I could feel my heart pumping loudly. Adrenaline rushed through me as soon as I saw my dog. My baby. My eyes teared up once again at the sight of his limp state. My mind started to cloud up with rage and pain.

"Is it already dead?" one of the asked.

"No, its chest is still kinda' movin'. I dunno. Let's just leave it he-" he almost finished his sentence.

I saw as my right leg flew up, kicking him square in the face. He yelled and fell to the ground, holding his already-injured face. Adrenaline was rushing through me as I reached down to grab Furly's almost life-less body, but a fist came down hard on my stomach.

I flew backwards and hit the ground, finding it very difficult to breathe. I was winded. I held my stomach, and started coughing out blood. _This day could not get any worse,_ I thought to myself. The adrenaline finally wore out and I felt the pain in my stomach area. My vision was getting real blurry at this point, but I kept pushing myself to grab my dog and to run. I just had no energy left.

"She's over there!" A familiar voice called out. I tried to look up to see where it was coming from, but I was too exhausted to move. I lay there, useless... again. I tried to call out to them, but my mouth was still covered by the duct tape.

Strong hands came down under my head, supporting it and holding it up. He pulled off the duct tape carefully. "Leanne. Can you hear me?" _Ahhh, Don... it's so great to hear your voice..._

"Leanne! Raph, Mikey, go handle those two purple dragons. They couldn't have gotten far. Interrogate them about what happened. We'll stay here and take care of Leanne and Furly." _Ohh Leo, you too? Mikey and Raph! Awesome, almost the whole gang is here except for-_

"What happened?! What happened to her?! And Furly! Oh my god, no!" _Oh awesome, Flynn too? Wow, I'd hate for him to see me like this... _"Oh my god, she's covered in blood. They both are."

"Shhh, calm down Flynn, it'll be okay. We have to take them home" Leo said to him reassuringly.

"Leanne?" Don said again. I couldn't see what he was doing, but I could tell he was trying to check around me, looking for injuries.

"Wi... Wind.. winded..." I tried to say a whole sentence, but it was still difficult for me to breath. I was hoping that just saying that one word would suffice as an answer to Don.

"...Kay," Don said calmly, "Leo, Flynn... we have... Furly... home... carry... they..." Don's voice was just barely making sense as I drifted off.

* * *

**LOL OH god I'm so sorry I made her pass out again ;~; SHE PASSES OUT ALOTT! poor girl. kind of brutal. Sorry it's been a long time ilu guys thanks for reading this chapter I'll be back soon maybe next week if I'm not busy? xoxo**

**hahah and dont you guys think it's kinda funny how when Flynn passed out, they just kinda leave him there and keep talking? aahaha i thought that was funny yeah. I'm lame. :c Poor Furly, thoughhhh. Yeah okay thanks bye guys I'll be back again!**


End file.
